104 FORMS OF HEBREW POETRY
times, actually occurs only a dozen^1 times, more
or less, according to the view taken of two or
three doubtful cases.
Thus it is not true of chapter ii. that "merely
rhythmical parallelism" is more frequent than
real parallelism of thought and term, nor is it
true that parallelism occurs mainly between the
subsections ; quite the reverse: we must, to be
accurate, put the case thus: In chapter ii. real
(though incomplete) parallelism is very frequent;
the fundamental parallelism is between the sec-
tions; but this is occasionally reinforced by an
additional and secondary parallelism between the
subsections, much in the same way that the
fundamental rhymes at the close of the (alternate)
lines of a quatrain are in some English poems
occasionally reinforced by an additional rhyme
in the middle of one or more lines, as often in
Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, e.g.
The sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he!
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.
The fact is, parallelism in Lamentations ii. is
singularly intricate and skilfully varied. It is
rarely complete either as between sections or sub-
sections, but it is generally clear enough and
sufficient to constitute a real formal connexion
1 See vv. 4 a (?), 5 b, 6 a (?), 7 a, 9 a (read UrB;wu for rbwv dbx), 10 b, 11 a,
(not 13 a: AV.), 15 c (present text), 17 a, c, 18 c, 20 b, 21 e.