CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION 237
developed into a form^1 of Hebrew poetry till
poetry of the Old Testament, or parallelistic,
type had long become extinct, and there came,
under the influence of the Moslem culture and
Arabic poetry, a renascence of Hebrew poetry
in the Middle Ages.
Of the two main forms of Hebrew poetry,
parallelism and rhythm, parallelism is most
intimately associated with the sense, and can
and should be represented in translation. In its
broader aspects and general differences of types
it was analysed once for all by Lowth: but a
more accurate and detailed measurement of
parallelism is required. Such a more exact
measurement of parallelism enables us more
readily to classify actual differences in different
poems and different writers; and in particular
to disentangle the very different types of in-
complete parallelisms and merely parallelistic
distichs grouped by Lowth under the single term
"synthetic parallelism." A study, more especi-
ally of the different incomplete parallelisms, also
affords an opportunity of watching the intimate
connexion between parallelism and at least a
certain approximation to rhythm.
Merely judged from the standpoint of parallel-
1 For examples of rhyme in Hebrew, as also for evidence that it was
too occasional and irregular to constitute a form of Hebrew poetry,
see E. Konig, Stilistik, 355-357 ; G. A. Smith, The Early Poetry of
Israel, 24 f. ; C. F. Burney, "Rhyme in the Song of Songs" in the
Journal of Theological Studies, x. 554-557.