CHAPTER V
VARIETIES OF RHYTHM: THE STROPHE
HEBREW rhythms fall into two broad classes
according as the second line of the successive
distichs is equal in rhythmical quantity to, and
therefore balances, the first line, or is less in
quantity than, and so forms a kind of rhythmical
echo of, the first line. Distichs in which a shorter
first line is followed by a longer second line are
relatively speaking so rare^1 that in a first broad
division they may well be neglected; and we
may classify the great majority of rhythms not
merely as distichs consisting of equal or unequal
lines, but, so as to bring out the regular and more
striking difference between them, as balancing
and echoing rhythms respectively.
But before we can discuss the question of the
extent to which, or the sense in which, strophe
may be said to be either a regular or an occasional
form of Hebrew poetry, it becomes necessary to
subdivide these two broad classes of rhythms
1 Examples are given below, pp. 176-182.