ELEMENTS OF HEBREW RHYTHM 131
for consideration; the answer is not immediately
obvious, for Hebrew does not so unambiguously
and conveniently indicate what are the stressed
syllables in a line as does Anglo-Saxon by its
alliterative system. In many Hebrew lines we
cannot immediately see for certain either which,
or how many, are the stressed syllables: what
means exist for ultimately determining these
uncertainties in part or entirely I will consider
later. But first I return to a point already
reached in the last chapter.
Even parallelism suggests a division of Hebrew
distichs into two broad types of rhythm: in one
of these two types the two parallel lines balance
one another, whereas in. the other the second
comes short of and echoes the first. No great
attention is required in reading Lamentations v.,
or Job xxviii., or many other passages in Job
or the Deutero-Isaiah, or many Psalms, such as,
e.g., li., in order to become aware of the dominance
and,' in some cases, of the almost uninterrupted
recurrence of balance between the successive
couplets of mostly parallel lines; nor, again, in
reading Lamentations ii., iii., iv. to become
aware of the different rhythm produced when a
shorter line constantly succeeds to a longer one.
So far we can get without any theory as to the
correct method, if there be one, whereby these
rhythms should be more accurately measured
or described, or as to the best nomenclature