Conclusion
The conclusion argues that the aesthetic dimensions of biblical poetry require active engagement with the poem that does not merely uncover a meaning that already exists, but rather enacts a moment of human encounter. In doing so, it re-emphasizes the importance of formal analysis even while resisting New Criticism’s tendency to suppress historical, social, and political dimensions of the text and its interpretation. It follows John Dewey in arguing that reading is always an act of re-creation, and that even reading old material brings a new poem into existence. Ultimately, it suggests that biblical poetry now and again acknowledges its unfinished business: the way it leans toward the future and its readers, and thereby resists the nothingness of destruction.