The alphabet, then, of Scriptural versification will be the figures The Couplet and of Parallelism. Of these figures the simplest and Triplet most fundamental are the Couplet and Triplet. A Couplet consists of two parallel clauses, a Triplet of three.

The LORD of Hosts is with us;

The God of Jacob is our refuge.

He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth;
He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder;
He burneth the chariots in the fire.

It is remarkable that the musical rendering of the psalms by chants, which in some points is carried to such a degree of nicety, entirely ignores this foundation difference of Couplet and Triplet, the same chant being sung to both. To take a typical case.

This is correct, because a piece of music which is two-fold in its structure is sung to a couplet verse. But presently the same music will be sung to the triplet verse.

Every ear must detect that this is a clumsy makeshift: it runs counter to a rhythmic distinction as fundamental as the distinction of common time and triple time in music. The remedy is very simple. Chants of this nature are made up of two parts.

For the triplet

As such they are only fitted to couplet verses. verse a variant is needed to the first part, sufficiently like it to be recognised, yet differing in a note or two.

For

a simple variant would be

The couplet verse would be sung as before; for the triplet the variant would be inserted between the first and second parts.

In an Appendix 1 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 strophé, 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 I

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 a

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.