Poetry, Imagery, and the Economy of Words

Good poets provide rich imagery with their words, carefully crafting phrases that capture the reader's imagination. And because they have to be more economical with their words than writers of prose, they often employ the use of imagery in order to say more with less.

Take, for instance, the imagery captured in the words David used in Psalm 7:14 (italics added):

Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
and is pregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.

Notice not only the vivid and progressive imagery - from conception to pregnancy to giving birth - but also how succinctly he was able to express this thought, in contrast to the prose of James 1:14-15 (which describes a similar progression but with twice as many words and with a different resulting triad - desire, sin, and death instead of evil, mischief, and lies):

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

It's not that one is necessarily better than the other; both are the authoritative Word of God. It's just a reminder of how much truth is packed into just a few words and images used by a skilled poet. And it's also a reminder to read the poetry of the Scriptures slowly and carefully - meditating on the rich imagery contained therein.