Scholarly Blindness
“Since before 450 BC there was no prose literature,
our only windows on the ancient world are the poems.”
~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 8
It only goes to show that scholars love
To focus narrowly. He looked so hard
At Greeks that he is far too far above
The evidence. In Homer’s own backyard
The Hebrews started writing prose so long
Before the Grecian poems, now we must
Surmise how distant all that was. The song
Of Greece was shiny new when desert dust
Had settled on first lines of Job. The books
We call the Pentateuch are full of prose
And stories not in verse. So if he looks
Across the sea, he’ll know where stories rose
Outside of poetry, at least the ones
Near Attica. He’s missed out Jacob’s sons.