CHAPTER IV
THE ELEMENTS OF HEBREW RHYTHM
THE study of parallelism must lead, if I have so
far observed and interpreted correctly, to the
conclusion that parallelism is but one law or
form of Hebrew poetry, and that it leaves much
to be explained by some other law or form.
Complete and exact correspondence of all the
terms in two parallel lines necessarily produces
the effect of exact or approximate rhythmical
balance. But such complete parallelism is rela-
tively rare in Hebrew poetry; the parallelism
is more often incomplete; and, moreover, along
with lines completely parallel and lines incom-
pletely parallel there frequently occur, also lines
unconnected by the presence in them of any
parallel terms. And yet, alike in the incompletely
parallel, and in the non-parallel couplets, there
will often be found, consistently maintained, the
same kind of rhythm as in those that are com-
pletely parallel. We are thus driven back behind
parallelism in search of an independent rhythmi-
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