116 FORMS OF HEBREW POETRY
of a rhythmical principle ; and what is called
the Dinah rhythm has accordingly gained recogni-
tion amongst many who still remain sceptical of
other Hebrew rhythms.
What, then, is really meant by the Dinah
rhythm? A certain ambiguity seems to lurk in
the 'usage of the term. Does it mean five terms
forming a complete sentence with a well-marked
pause after the third? or a succession of such
sentences? If the first sentence of Genesis--
Mymwh-txv Crxh-tx | Myhlx xrb tywxrb—occurred. in
any of the first four chapters of Lamentations,
every one would accept it as a rhythmically
normal line. Is, then, the first sentence in
Genesis an example of kinah rhythm occurring
sporadically in prose, as hexameters occur spor-
adically in the Authorised Version? Scarcely, for
it is probable that those who define kinah rhythm
as verse unequally divided by a pause, and
normally in the ratio 3 : 2, tacitly mean by
kinah rhythm a succession of such verses. And
certainly it was the frequent repetition of such
verses in Lamentations i.-iv. that first drew atten-
tion to the peculiarity of their style or rhythm.
Five words with a pause after the third is,
even in Hebrew prose, too frequently occurring
and too easily arising a phenomenon to possess
by itself anything distinctive. An hexameter is
a noteworthy phenomenon wherever it occurs ;
five words with a pause after the third are not ;