Paula

Yes, I hope also that I didn’t give the wrong impression when I made reference to “the poetic argument”. I was referring to the habit of some (not anyone here) to make poetry an excuse to interpret anything any way one wants.

A good illustration of the other extreme is Calvinism’s citation of Psalm 51:5 as doctrine instead of poetic exaggeration. This is clearly poetry and not a statement of doctrine, yet Calvinism uses it as a proof text for Total Depravity. So we can see the contrast between true poetic expression here with the sequential, matter-of-fact narrative of Genesis. And sequence is stated clearly, along with the numbering of each day as corresponding to evening/morning.

Point being, that there is a critical difference between poetry to convey an emotion, and poetry to describe a fact.