92 FORMS OF HEBREW POETRY
period into two unequal parts of which the longer
part precedes the shorter part; (2) the normal
length of the longer part is three words, of the
shorter two words; (3) but by legitimate varia-
tions a longer part consisting of four words may
be followed by a shorter consisting of (a) three,
or (b) two, words ; (4) the period is never equally
divided;^1 if, as sometimes happens, each part
consists of two words, the two words of the first
part are heavier and weightier than the two
words of the second part; (5) between the two
parts of the verse, there is no strict and constant
rhythmical relation beyond the fundamental fact
of inequality of length.
To some of these metrical questions I shall
return: meantime I proceed to examine the
parallelism of the poems, and I will begin with
the isolated fifth chapter which happens to be
an excellent storehouse of examples of the types
of parallelism occurring in poetry that is free
from the well-marked peculiarities of Lamenta-
tions i.-iv. By comparison with the more ordinary
parallelism of Lamentations v., any peculiarities
in the parallelism of Lamentations i.-iv. may be
the better discerned.
The majority of the twenty-two verses of
Lamentations v. may be treated as containing
six terms equally divided among the two stichoi
that compose each verse, i.e. each stichos normally
1 Zeitschr. fur die alttest. Wissenschaft, 1882, pp. 4 f.