King Saul and I (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Yehuda Amichai
- First Published: 1958
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Jews or Jewish life, Kings, queens, or royalty, Bible, biblical imagery, or biblical symbolism, Biblical times, Judaism
The Poem
Written in the first person, “King Saul and I” is a poem of fifty-five lines divided into three sections. As the title suggests, the poem is based on a comparison of the lives of the legendary King Saul and the author. The tone of the poem indicates that the poet is speaking directly to the reader, undisguised, in the classic tradition of lyric poetry.
Section 1 has three stanzas. The first stanza emphasizes the difference between king and poet in the opening two lines: “They gave him a finger, but he took the whole hand.” By contrast, the poet has been...
[The entire page is 1506 words long]
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