202 FORMS OF HEBREW POETRY
can a Hebrew poem entirely dispense with strict
parallelism? We cannot rule this out as im-
possible, nor should we be wise to treat it as very
improbable; but, even if parallelism were entirely
absent, a very essential characteristic of the
poetry would still remain, if it continued to be
parallelistic, throughout, in spite of the total
absence of parallelism of terms.
But the question has recently been forced to
the front: Is there a Hebrew rhythmical poetry
that dispenses not only with parallelism, but also
with the parallelistic structure that is an essential
characteristic of all the Hebrew poetry of which
we have yet taken account?
Lowth, by his analysis of parallelism, brought
to light the fact that this parallelism was as
conspicuous in much of the prophetic writings
as in Psalms or Job: he thus extended the then
recognised boundaries of what is poetry in the
Old Testament. By his analysis of rhythm
Sievers claims to have carried this extension of
the still generally recognised boundaries of Old
Testament poetry very much further: what,
till the publication of his first work on Hebrew
metre,l had been universally regarded as prose
has under his hands come to wear the appearance
of regular metrical composition; he has detected
1 E. Sievers, " Metrische Studien," " Studien zur beb raischen
Metrik " in the Abhandlungen der phil.-hist. Classe der kanigtich
sachsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, xxi. (1901). See especially
ch. x. pp. 371 ff.