Hebrew Poetry in the Bible: A Guide for Understanding and for Translating Book

This book was very enlightening and amply rewarding for me to read, but ONLY after I accepted the fact that it is definitely NOT (as its subtitle claims) "an introductory guide." For sure, scattered within these pages are a few sentences that do, indeed, reassure a beginner who's easily frightened by the dense scholarly analysis of Hebrew verse offered in most of these chapters. For example, any beginner would be encouraged by this statement: "listening closely is really all that is required" to understand the poems of the Bible (page 200); and any beginner would be grateful to know that "Love and concentrated attention are far superior to theories." (page 35) To such beginners, I recommend entering this book by reading Chapter 11, "The Reader's Attitude", before any other chapter; and I recommend reading the poetry analysis in Chapter 10, "Love Poetry: The Song of Songs," before reading the author's earlier, extremely detailed -- yet very valuable -- examinations of the poetic structure of psalms, proverbs, Job, etc..