98 FORMS OF HEBREW POETRY
If, however, the section of chapters i.-iv. be
a "protracted line," we might expect to find
complete parallelism occurring as between the
sections rather than as between the subsections.
As a matter of fact, incomplete parallelism be-
tween the sections is not uncommon in chapters
i.-iv.; it is less common, indeed, than parallelism
between the stichoi in chapter v.; it is, on the
other hand, much commoner than parallelism
between whole verses, of which we noted but one
example, in chapter v. And yet complete paral-
lelism between sections is exceedingly rare, and
in fact, I think, does not once occur. Probably
the nearest approach to complete parallelism
between sections is where four of the five terms
correspond, as in ii. 2 a, b, where the scheme is
a. b. c. d. e
a'. c'. d'. e'2
bqfy tvxn-lk-tx lmH-xlv yndx flb
hdvhy-tb yrcbm vtrbfb srh
The-Lord hath-swallowed-up unpityingly all the-homesteads
of-Jacob,
He-hath-thrown-down in-his-wrath the-strongholds of-the-
daughter of-Judah.
A much greater relative amount of those forms
of what Lowth called synthetic or constructive
parallelism, in which there is a complete absence
of strict parallelism, is another feature of Lament-
ations i.-iv. which sharply distinguishes these
poems (with one exception) from Lamentations v.