In an Appendix I present at full length the system of metric parallelism which underlies Scriptural verse: for readers who are not afraid of technicalities the study of such a system will richly repay itself in increased susceptibility to the rhythmic cadence of Biblical poetry. But even the most general reader may be interested to review at this point the broader effects of Biblical versification.

Figures and
Stanzas

Besides the Couplet and Triplet there are other simple figures of parallelism, such as the Quatrain, the Sextet, the Octet, terms which explain themselves. Such figures are another name for the 'stanzas' of our modern hymn-books. A psalm, like a modern hymn, may often be made up of a succession of similar stanzas.

Psalm cxxi

I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains:
From whence shall my help come?
My help cometh from the LORD,
Which made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved:

He that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel

Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is thy keeper:

The LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

The sun shall not smite thee by day,

Nor the moon by night.

The LORD shall keep thee from all evil;

He shall keep thy soul.

The LORD shall keep thy going out and thy coming in,
From this time forth and for evermore.

We rise to a higher plane of rhythmic effect in Antistrophic structure. The word is Greek, and the spirit of this beautiful form of structure is best caught from the complete realisation of it in Greek lyrics. A Greek ode was performed by a body of

1 Appendix III, page 526.

Antistrophic

structure

singers whose evolutions as they sang a stanza carried them from the altar towards the right: then turning round they performed an answering stanza, repeating their movements, until its close brought them to the altar from which they had started. Then a stanza would take them to the left of the altar, and its answering stanza would bring them back to the starting-point: and of such pairs of stanzas an ode was normally made up. From a Greek word meaning 'a turning' the first stanza of a pair was called a strophe, its answering stanza an antistrophe: and the metrical rhythms of the antistrophe reproduced those of the corresponding strophe line by line, though the rhythm might be wholly changed between one pair of stanzas and another. Hebrew lyrics contain numerous examples of this disposition of stanzas in pairs, the two stanzas of a pair agreeing in number of parallel lines.

Strophe 1

Psalm xxx I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast raised me up,

And hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.

O LORD my God,

I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.

O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol:

Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Antistrophe

Sing praise unto the LORD, O ye saints of his,

And give thanks to his holy name.

For his anger is but for a moment;

In his favour is life:

Weeping may tarry for the night,
But joy cometh in the morning.

Strophe 2

As for me, I said in my prosperity,

I shall never be moved.

Thou, LORD, of thy favour hadst made my mountain to stand strong:

Antistrophe

Thou didst hide thy face; I was troubled.

I cried to thee, O LORD;

And unto the LORD I made supplication:

Strophe 3

"What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit?
Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth?
Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me:

LORD, be thou my helper."

Antistrophe

Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing;

Thou hast loosed my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness:

To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent.

O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

Conclusions

It is found quite consistent with this antistrophic structure, alike in Hebrew and Greek poetry, that to the balanced stanzas should be added an independent stanza of different form, Introductions and by way of Introduction or Conclusion. A good example is a poem in the Book of Proverbs which might be entitled The Two Paths. Its strophe and antistrophe consist of ten-line figures, varying similarly between longer and shorter lines; the conclusion is a quatrain. This form is a reflex of the thought of the poem: the strophe describes the path of the just, the antistrophe the path of the wicked; the brief conclusion then blends the two ideas in a common image.

Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings;
And the years of thy life shall be many.

I have taught thee in the way of wisdom;

I have led thee in paths of uprightness.

When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened;

And if thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.

Take fast hold of instruction;

Let her not go:

Keep her;

For she is thy life.

Enter not into the path of the wicked,

And walk not in the way of evil men.

Avoid it,

Pass not by it;

Turn from it,

And pass on.

For they sleep not, except they have done mischief;

And their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
For they eat the bread of wickedness,

And drink the wine of violence.

But the path of the righteous is as the light of dawn,
That shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

The way of the wicked is as darkness:

They know not at what they stumble.

In contrast with this Antistrophic effect is the structure denominated Strophic: where a poem is allowed to fall into well-marked

Strophic

structure

divisions, which have, however, no distinct relations with one another as regards length or parallelism. By an awkwardness of nomenclature, such irregular divisions have come to be called 'strophes': it is too late to change the usage, but the reader must be on the watch to distinguish the 'strophic structure,' where the stanzas may be unequal, from the antistrophic structure,' in which the two stanzas of a pair are exact counterparts. A simple example of such division by natural cleavage only will be afforded by the twentieth psalm.

The LORD answer thee in the day of trouble;

The name of the God of Jacob set thee up on high;
Send thee help from the sanctuary,

And strengthen thee out of Zion;

Remember all thy offerings,

And accept thy burnt sacrifice;

Grant thee thy heart's desire,

And fulfil all thy counsel.

We will triumph in thy salvation,

Psalm xx

And in the name of our God we will set up our banners:

The LORD fulfil all thy petitions.

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses:

But we will make mention of the name of the LORD our God.

They are bowed down and fallen:

But we are risen, and stand upright.

O LORD, save the king;

And answer us when we call.

Where parallelism applies to more than two lines or stanzas a very interesting modification becomes possible. This is Inversion, or Introversion; with the parallelism is combined an inversion of order, thus:

A

B

Antistrophic
Inversion

Psalm cxiv

BB
АА

An example of antistrophic inversion is found in the hundred and fourteenth psalm, which thought and form combine to make one of the most striking of Hebrew lyrics. It is a song inspired, not only by the deliverance from Egypt, but also by the new conception of Deity which that deliverance exhibited to the world. In the age of the exodus the prevailing conception of a god was that of a being sacred to a particular territory, out of the bounds of which territory the god's power did not extend. But the Israelites in the wilderness presented to the world the spectacle of a nation moving from country to country and carrying the presence of their God with them; it was no longer the land of Goshen, but the nation of Israel itself that constituted the sanctuary and dominion of Jehovah. The wonder of this conception the psalm expresses by the favourite Hebrew image of nature in convulsion; and the effect of inversion in giving shape (so to speak) to the whole thought of the poem may be conveyed to the eye by the following scheme :