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The
Poetic Genius of Alma the Younger
(Part 1 - Lyricism)
By
Doug Talley
During the last several decades Latter-day
Saint scholars have written frequently about the literary qualities
of the Book of Mormon. Some of this work has been apologetic,
to defend the authenticity of the Book of Mormon against critics.
Some has been primarily analytical, to highlight previously unrecognized
literary merits of the Book. A great deal of scholarship has focused
on identifying and categorizing a vast array of poetic and rhetorical
devices in the Book of Mormon denominated conveniently as parallelism.
At the risk of oversimplifying, parallelism might be defined as
the statement of a concept immediately followed by a repeated
treatment of the concept, either by similarity or by contrast.
This effect is frequently achieved by repetition of word, phrase
or sentence. A modern example of parallelism is found in President
John F. Kennedy’s famous lines:
Ask not what your country can do
for you.
Ask what you can do for your country.
Repetition as a poetic and rhetorical
device is ancient. Classical Greek abounded with such devices.
My Greek grammar includes an appendix of rhetorical figures, including
a variety of repetitions, such as the following example from Aeschines,
a device known as antistrophe, which is the repetition
of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses:
Whosoever in his first speech asks
for your vote,
Asks the surrender of your oath,
Asks the surrender of the law,
Asks the surrender of the democracy.
(Herbert Smyth, Greek Grammar,
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973, p. 674).
The successive repetition of word
and phrase builds tension, energy and drama. Significantly, the
power and effect of such repetition translates well from the original
language. A reader may not be able to pronounce or read a single
letter of the Greek original, but the repetition is so clear it
is actually visual as well as audible or conceptual. It can be
seen in the original, as though it were a kind of rhyme:
Parallelism abounded anciently as
well in Hebrew scripture, particularly in Hebrew poetry. From
the opening lines of the first of the Psalms, parallelism is evident:
Blessed is the man
that walketh not
in the counsel
of the ungodly,
nor standeth
in the way of
sinners,
nor sitteth
in the seat of the scornful.
Again, this repetition translates
readily from language to language as can be seen, for example,
in the Latin Vulgate, even when the word order is somewhat modified:
Beatus vir qui
non abiit
in consilio impiorum,
in via peccatorum
non stetit,
in cathedra pestilentiae
non sedit.
The Usefulness of Parallelism
Why parallelism should figure so
prominently in Hebrew poetry might be explained by the doctrinal
principle that every word is established by the mouth of two or
three witnesses. Parallelism, as utilized by Isaiah, for example,
when he quotes God directly, would seem to be the Lord’s signature
communication technique. The Lord’s operating principle is to
confirm every precept by two or three witnesses, so He repeats
Himself, and in doubling or tripling the message, thereby confirms
it as His. What did Joseph say to Pharoah? And for that the
dream was doubled unto Pharoah twice; it is because the thing
is established by God. (Genesis 41:32). In Job 33:14 we read,
For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man still perceiveth
it not. When the Father introduced the resurrected Christ
to the Nephites, he spoke three times before the multitude understood
his words. If for no other reason, repetition might be necessary
just to absorb doctrine.
Like classical Greek and ancient
Hebrew, the Book of Mormon also abounds with various parallelisms.
Parallelism is perhaps the single most prominent literary characteristic
of the book, so much so, it suggests by itself that the Book of
Mormon stems from an ancient tradition, a tradition that like
early Greek and Hebrew poetry was primarily oral. Parallelism
is a common element of early, oral traditions, because anciently
poems were read aloud or sung, and the use of repetition allowed
largely illiterate audiences to absorb the stories and messages
of the poems by ear. The repetition also served to make the poems
more lyrical and more readily remembered.
The Book of Mormon authors also wrote,
in part, for audiences that were presumably illiterate. While
they preserved their words on metal plates for future audiences,
they also recited from the plates for contemporary audiences who
were not literate. The authors continued parallelism as a literary
convention because it was useful. It helped their contemporary
audiences to more fully absorb and remember their words.
Reference to some of the scholarship
on Book of Mormon parallelisms may be helpful. At least twenty-five
different types of parallel patterns have been identified in the
Book of Mormon. (Donald W. Parry, Poetic Parallelisms of the
Book of Mormon, Provo, Utah: FARMS 1988). A penetrating study
has also been made to link much of the parallelism in the Book
of Mormon, and in Hebrew and other Semetic poetry, to specific
word pair formulas – the pairs being sometimes synonymous, like
earth / world and sometimes antithetical, like day /
night – which formulas may have aided in the rapid composition
of parallel lines as part of an oral tradition. (Kevin L. Barney,
Poetic Diction and Parallel Word Pairs in the Book of Mormon,
Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1995). Much has been written also about chiasmus
in the Book of Mormon, a specific type of parallelism in which
words or phrases sequenced initially in a specific order are then
repeated precisely in reverse order, as in Alma 42:19:
if a man murdered
he should die,
would he be afraid
he would die
if he should murder?
(John W. Welch, Chiasmus in the
Book of Mormon, Provo Utah: FARMS, 1994).
I cannot add to the scholarship of
parallelism in the Book of Mormon. That work remains for others
far more qualified and studied. However, as a poet and as a poetry
critic, I might be able to offer some views on the literary technique
itself, how master poets have used it, and why in the context
of other writings the use of parallelism by Alma the Younger in
the Book of Mormon is no less skillful. Additionally, I hope to
advance in future columns beyond a discussion of parallelism,
by identifying what is profoundly poetic about Alma’s writing
and why it so singularly powerful and effective. Alma can be distinguished
from other Book of Mormon authors by the frequency and elegance,
by the quantity and quality, of his poetic technique. He, of all
the Book of Mormon writers, is a poet.
Lyricism through Repetition
My interest in parallelism, and Alma’s
use of it, begins in the lyricism it often creates – a lyricism
where the passion of the writer transforms into song. The great
masters of poetry have always resorted to word repetition to create
lyrical effects. Consider the following:
Virgil in the Aeneid (Book 1,
line 684):
Falle dolo, et notos pueri
puer indue vultus
(Counterfeit by illusion, as a boy,
the boy’s known features)
Dante in the Purgatorio (Canto
XXXIII, l. 18):
Quando con li occhi li
occhi mi percosse
(When with her eyes, my eyes
she struck)
Shakespeare in the sonnets (Sonnet
20, ll. 6-7):
Featured like him, like
him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and
that man’s scope
Yeats in the poem, “The Folly of
Being Comforted”:
The fire that stirs about
her, when she stirs
The Psalmist in Psalms 8:8
The fowl of the air and the fish
of the sea
and whatsoever passeth through the
paths of the sea
The same technique is utilized in
great prose as well as in great poetry. A compelling example is
found in Virginia Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway, in the
character Septimus:
A sparrow perched on the railing
opposite chirped Septimus, Septimus, four or five times over and
went on, drawing its notes out, to sing freshly and piercingly
in Greek words how there is no crime and, joined by another
sparrow, they sang in voices prolonged and piercing in Greek
words, from trees in the meadows of life beyond a river where
the dead walk, how there is no death.
The parallelism is evident:
piercingly in Greek words
how there is no crime . . .
piercing in Greek words . . .
how there is no death. . .
Septimus is perhaps the most compelling
figure in Woolf’s book because his nature, manifested in the lyricism
of his thought, is so poetic.
When repetitions are song-like, they
often translate into other languages without diminishment of their
lyrical quality. Not just the concept translates, but the sound
as well. Ordinarily, the lyrical effects of a poem are quite difficult,
if not impossible, to translate. Homer’s meter, the dactylic hexameter,
does not translate particularly well into English. Our closest
equivalent is the iambic pentameter, the meter Shakespeare utilized
in the plays and sonnets. The iambic pentameter does not translate
very well from English to Italian. Nor do the incredibly complex
rhyming schemes of Medieval Latin, Provencal, and Renaissance
Italian readily translate into English and other languages.
But certain techniques of parallelism,
those where words and phrases are repeated verbatim, do convey
a lyricism that carries from language to language. The repetition
of identical words and phrases is a poetic technique, as Donald
W. Parry points out, which the Greeks classified variously as
cycloides, epistrophe, and anaphora, depending
upon where in a particular passage the repetition is found. When
manipulated skillfully, the technique creates an effect that is
absolutely lyrical in any language.
Alma’s Universal Lyricism
Consider the brief passage found
in Alma 37:33-35. The sound of this passage translates into virtually
any language as lyrical. It is universally song-like, as demonstrated
in the following English, Italian and German translations. Even
the reader who cannot pronounce a lick of German or Italian can
see the repetition in the passage. Alma’s use of parallelism
in this instance preserves the lyricism of the original even in
other languages.
ENGLISH:
Preach unto them repentance
and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ
Teach them to humble themselves
and to be meek and lowly in heart
Teach them to withstand every temptation
of the devil
with their faith on the Lord
Jesus Christ
Teach them to never be weary of
good works,
but to be meek and lowly in heart.
ITALIAN:
Predica loro il pentimento
e la
fede nel Signore Gesù Cristo;
Insegna loro a umiliarsi
e ad
essere miti e umili di cuore;
Insegna loro a resistere a ogni
tentazione,
con la
loro fede nel Signore Gesù Cristo;
Insegna loro a non stancarsi mai
delle buone opere,
ma ad
essere miti e umili di cuore;
GERMAN:
Predige ihnen Umkehr
und
den Glauben an den Herrn Jesus Christus;
Lehre sie, sich zu demütigen
und
sanftmütig und im Herzen bescheiden zu sein;
Lehre sie, mit ihrem Glauben
an den Herrn Jesus Christus
jeder
Versuchung des Teufels zu widerstehen.
Lehre sie, der guten Werke niemals
müde zu warden,
sondern
sanftmütig und im Herzen bescheiden zu sein;
The German even breaks the pattern
seen in the English and Italian by inverting the order of the
second phrase of Glauben an den Herrn Jesus Christus, and
yet the lyricism is preserved, again because the words of the
phrase remain identical, even if the phrase itself follows in
a different order. Interestingly, when formatted in this fashion,
it is evident that Alma’s repetition of the same words has created
a kind of universal rhyme, translatable into any language.
The specific technique used here
is cycloides, a Greek term referring to a circle or a round.
In this technique a phrase is repeated at regular intervals, as
in a cycle. With the flare of a master craftsman, as though his
own talent could not be restrained, Alma utilized the technique
not just once, but twice – a double cycloides – the first
cycle being “faith on the Lord Jesus Christ” and the second, “to
be meek and lowly in heart”. And not only is there a double cycloides
in this brief passage, but an additional technique of anaphora,
a Greek term meaning “reference”, alluding to the repetition created
by like beginnings. The beginning repetition of “Teach them”
also carries forward lyrically in the Italian as “Insegna loro”
and into the German as “Lehre sie”. Again, this repetition
of identical words creates a rhyme-like quality. It asks a great
deal of successive lines to end elegantly with identical sounds.
How much more so to both end and begin with identical sounds and
not reduce to a mere ditty? With so much technique packed into
such brief space, this snatch of sermon displays the highest degree
of artistry. Is the passage didactic? Yes, but it is also poetic,
and its sound is engaging and song-like.
Poetry Undiminished by Time or Translation
It is said that poetry is what gets
lost in translation, but with Alma, in this one particular, the
poetry is preserved regardless of the language. Was this conscious
on Alma’s part? The idea cannot be discounted. The Book of Mormon
writers knew from the days of Lehi that the plates would be preserved
and go forth unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.
(1 Nephi 5:17-18). Alma cites this very prophecy himself in his
discourse to his son: Behold, it has been prophesied by our
fathers, that they [the plates] should be kept and handed down
from one generation to another . . . until they should go forth
unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. . . . (Alma
37:4). The Book of Mormon writers at some level understood their
audience in time would become worldwide, and Alma had the skill
and genius to articulate his own personal vision and poetic style
for a worldwide audience.
This example cited in Alma 37, although
perhaps the most compelling example of Alma’s lyricism, is by
no means unique or singular. Alma’s use of parallelism is relentless;
one device follows another with flare and brilliance, as though,
like Mozart or Shakespeare, he cannot restrain his skill. The
passage just cited is immediately followed by another device known
as simple synthetic parallelism:
O, remember, my son, and learn
wisdom in thy youth;
Yea, learn in thy youth
to keep the commandments of God.
This device is then followed immediately
by another parallelism of four lines with identical phrase endings,
a technique known as epistrophe, meaning “a turning about”
and referring to like endings in successive sentences:
Yea, let all thy doings be unto
the Lord,
And whithersoever thou goest let
it be in the Lord,
Yea, let all thy thoughts be directed
unto the Lord;
Yea, let the affections of thy heart
be placed upon the Lord forever.
Again, this repetition of identical
words at the end of a phrase translates lyrically into other languages
also, as in the Italian:
Si, che tutte le tue azioni siano
per il Signore,
Ed ovunque andrai, che sia nel
Signore;
Si, che tutte i tuoi pensieri siano
diretti al Signore,
Si, che gli affetti del tuo cuore
siano posti nel Signore, per sempre.
As if Alma’s writing to this point
were not already passionate enough, this last passage generates
an ever-increasing intensity. Alma counsels the disciple to always
be directed toward God as he proceeds from labors, to travels,
to thoughts, to affections. Each succeeding line makes the relationship
with the Lord more personal and intimate.
The virtuosity of this series is
dazzling. John W. Welch has already examined Alma’s consummate
mastery of extended chiasmus as found in Chapter 36. (See, Chiasmus
in the Book of Mormon cited above). After that tour de
force one wonders how Alma could possibly continue. And yet,
as demonstrated above, Chapter 37 by no means relinquishes the
poetry already established, but builds upon it.
Poetry conveys culture. How a people
will structure thought and language into form conveys something
of their identity. The parallelisms in the Book of Mormon that
may sound awkward and tiresome at first examination, because they
are not quite familiar to a modern ear, will upon deeper examination
prove profound because they convey the cultural identity of another
entire people. The poetic devices utilized by Alma reflect a compelling
intellect and an engaging spirit. By every standard, including
the standard of lyricism, his is high art. Next month’s column
will advance this idea a bit further, by examining more closely
the virtuosity found in Alma’s writing, that is, the studied combination
of multiple effects manifesting a high degree of artistry.
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