128 FORMS OF HEBREW POETRY
poetry is probably to be found neither in blank
verse nor in rhymed verse, but in the old Anglo-
Saxon poetry, and its revival (with a difference)
in Chaucer's contemporary, the author of Piers
Ploughman. That poetry has one feature which
is no regular, nor even a particularly common,
feature of Hebrew poetry, viz. alliteration; but
that feature, though a most convenient indication
of the rhythm, is absolutely unessential to it.
Apart from the references to this alliteration, how
admirably does Professor Saintsbury's descrip-
tion of this type of English poetry correspond,
mutatis mutandis, to the rhythmical impressions
left by many pages of Hebrew psalms or prophecy.
"The staple line of this verse consists of two halves
or sections, each containing two ‘long,’ ‘strong,’
‘stressed,’ ‘accented’ syllables, these same syl-
lables being, to the extent of three out of four,
alliterated. At the first casting of the eye on a
page of Anglo-Saxon poetry no common resem-
blances except these seem to emerge. But we see
on some pages an altogether extraordinary differ-
ence in the lengths of the lines, or, in other words,
of the number of ‘short,’ ‘weak,’ ‘unstressed,’
‘unaccented’ syllables which are allowed to
group themselves round the pivots or posts of
the rhythm. Yet attempts have been made, not
without fair success, to divide the sections or half-
lines into groups or types of rhythm, more or less
capable of being represented by the ordinary