The author analyzes the poetic songs of biblical Lamentations with oral-poetic folkloric method for the first time with surprising results. Contemporary lament poems are then compared from recent post-war Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina about suffering in cities under siege. Oral-poetic and socio-rhetorical methods illumine two lead singers in dialogue in a mourning context, employing formulas and themes of dirge, psalmic and prophetic traditions in their compositions, but infusing these with their individual artistry to respond to Jerusalem's destruction. Poets through history and across...

Is it possible to discern women prophets' utterances embedded within lyrics of prophetic books? If so, women prophets would be represented as implied composers along with men. This study offers a reliable method in this effort, based on the sound patterns of lyrical Hebrew that disclose a consistent, clear 'signature' of women's oral composing more broadly, and a different signature of men's composing, across all lyrical genres and historical periods. Integrating feminist, postcolonial, and indigenous cultural approaches as well, this inquiry moves past closed doors of previous suppositions,...

Is it possible to hear women prophets utterances embedded within lyrics of prophetic books? If so, women prophets should be represented as implied composers along with men. A few scholars have raised this question, yet a clear method for discerning women s voices apart from feminine grammatical forms, genres used, and women s perspectives has not been offered. This study offers a reliable method, based on the sound patterns of lyrical Hebrew. It discerns a consistent, clear signature of women s composing more broadly, and a different signature of men s composing, across all lyrical genres and...