When you say “God damn you” and “goddamn you,” Richard Whitekettle hopes you know you’re saying two very different things. He lays out why in today’s On the Square :
While the way a psalmist addressed God is an important thing to ponder, there is something else about addressing God in a psalm that is even more important and more fundamental to consider, and that is the very fact of addressing God at all. When the psalmists were dealing with some situation or thinking through some sentiment, they talked with God about it. That is, they did not just talk out loud, or yell into space. They talked to someone, a divine someone.
Read the rest here . Ezra Pound demonstrates proper usage here .
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