"good Mrs. Murphys"

Hollander goes into a lot of depth when he writes about the psalms. Not just about how they're an ubiquitous presence in much of the poetry and music of the sixteenth to twentieth centuries, but also about their mistranslation throughout the ages.

He works through the psalms' mistranslations by going in close to various passages and comparing their Hebrew to the Latin and the English of various versions, citing what's right and what's wrong with each. Though, this chapter is hardly a study in mistranslation, mistranslation is really the whole point of it. For, at the center of this chapter is "good Mrs. Murphys" (114) - Hollander's affectionate label for school-age mis-recitations of the various psalms that were once, apparently, in wide use in schools.

Being a more reflective than theoretical chapter, really, these mis-recitations are the main thrust of this chapter. Although it goes unsaid, Hollander seems to be suggesting that mis-recitations, or slightly off remembrances of the psalms are excellent examples of poetic work; they rework an established idea into a new and perhaps more intimately meaningful (intentionally or otherwise) form.