whether the book of Job is a dramatic poem or not. Inasmuch as it represents an action and a
progress, it is a drama as truly and really as any poem can be which develops the working of
passion and the alter-nations of faith, hope, distrust, triumph and confidence and black despair,
in the struggle which it depicts the human mind as engaged in while attempting to solve one of
the most intricate problems it can be called upon to regard. It is a drama as life is a drama, the
most powerful of all tragedies but that it is a dramatic poem, intended to be represented upon a
stage, or capable of being so represented, may be confidently denied. One characteristic of Hebrew
poetry, not indeed peculiar to it, but shared by it in common with the literature of other nations,
is its intensely national and local coloring. The writers were Hebrews of the Hebrews, drawing
their inspiration from the mountains and rivers of Palestine, which they have immortalized in their
poetic figures, and even while uttering the sublimest and most universal truths never forgetting
their own nationality in its narrowest and intensest form. Examples of this remarkable characteristic
the Hebrew poets stand thick upon every page of these writings, and in striking contrast with the
vague generalizations of the indian philosophic poetry. About one third of the Old Testament is
poetry in the Hebrew—a large part of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon,
besides a great part of the prophets. Fragments of poetry are also found in the historical books.
(The form which biblical poetry takes is not of rhyme and metre—the rhythm of quantity in the
syllables—as with us, but the rhythm of the thought—there usually being two corresponding
members to each distich or verse, which is called a parallelism. To some extent there is verbal
rhythm. Sometimes there were alliterations, as in the 119th Psalm, which is divided up into sections,
one for each letter of their alphabet, and each of the eight verses in a section begins with the same
letter in the Hebrew; and chap. 31, vs. 10-31, of the book of Proverbs is an alphabetical acrostic
in praise of “the virtuous woman.” The poetry of the Hebrews, in its essential poetic nature, stands
in the front rank. It abounds in metaphors and images and in high poetic feeling and fervor.—ED.)
Pollux
[Castor And Pollux AND POLLUX]
Polygamy
[Marriage]
Pomegranate
The pomegranate tree, Punicu granatum, derives its name from the Latin pomum granatum,
“grained apple.” The Romans gave it the name of Punica, as the tree was introduced from Carthage.
It belongs to the natural order Myrtaceae (Myrtle), being, however, rather a tall bush than a tree,
The foliage is dark green, the flowers are crimson, the fruit, which is about the size of art orange,
is red when which in Palestine is about the middle of October. It contains a quantity of juice.
Mention is made in (Song of Solomon 8:2) of spiced wine of the juice of the pomegranate. The
rind is used in the manufacture of morocco leather, and together with the bark is sometimes used
medicinally. Mr. Royle (Kitto’s Cyc., art “Rimmon”) states that this tree is a native of Asia and is
to be traced from Syria through Persia, even to the mountains of northern India. The pomegranate
was early cultivated in Egypt; hence the complaint of the Israelites in the wilderness of Zin, (Numbers
20:5) this “is no place of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates.” Carved figures of the pomegranate
adorned the tops of the pillars in Solomon’s temple, (1 Kings 7:18,20) etc.; and worked
representations of this fruit, in blue, purple and scarlet, ornamented the hem of the robe of the
ephod. (Exodus 28:33,34)
Pommels
frankie
(Frankie)
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