VARIETIES OF RHYTHM 161
a markedly different effect 1 which it is well to
render as manifest as possible.
If, at least where parallelism commonly takes
place between sections of three and two stresses
respectively, we more properly speak of a distich
of unequal lines than of a line of five stresses,
then clear examples of distichs of two-stress lines
are those which interchange with the 3 : 2 distichs
in Lamentations i., iii., iv. : as, for example,
Myrvrmb ynfybwh
hnfl ynvrh
He hath filled me with bitterness,
He hath sated me with wormwood.
However we choose to term them, combinations
of parallel clauses of two stresses do, as a matter of
fact, interchange within the same poem with dis-
tichs of four-stress parallel lines : so, for example,
in 2 Samuel i. 22--
MyllH Mdm
Myrbg blHm
rvHx gvwn-xl Ntnvhy twq
Mqyr bvwt-xl lvxw brHv
From the blood of the slain,
From the fat of the mighty,
The bow of Jonathan turned not back,
And the swore of Saul returned not empty.
For are we not forced by the parallelism to place
a much greater pause between the first two sets
1 Cp. e.g. Isaiah i. 10 f., 18-20, 21-26, and see Isaiah (" International
Critical Commentary "), p. Ixvi (Introduction, § 54) ; see also ibid.
pp. 4 f., 26, 31.