This correspondence of thought is occasionally found in Greek and Latin poetry, particularly in the interlocutions of the eclogues of Theocritus and Virgil. The two following distichs are speci mens of the antithetic parallelism: 'Dam. Trish' lufitts stabulis, maturis frugibus imber, A rboribus venti ; nobis A maryllidis tree.
Men. Dulce satis humor, tlefizelsi.s arbutus hectlis, Lento sa/ix fa* pecori ; so/us Antyntas.' Pope's writings present specimens which may be compared with the antithetical parallelism. In his Rape of the Lock, passages of the kind abound. We opened his Essay on Criticism, and the first lines our eye fell on were these— 'A little learning is a dangerous thing: Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain And drinking largely sobers us again.' So in his Messiah, where he was likely to copy the form in imitating the spirit of the original— 'The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead, And boys in flow'ry bands the tiger lead, The steer and lion at one crib shall meet, And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet.' This correspondence in thought is not, however, of universal occurrence. We find a merely rhyth mical parallelism in which the thought is not re peated, but goes forward, throughout the verse, which is divided midway into two halves or a distich 'The word is not upon the tongue, Jehovah thou knowest it altogether.' Ps. cxxxviii :4.
'Gird as a man thy loins, I will ask thee; inform thou me.' Joh xl -.7.
Here poetry distinguishes itself from prose chiefly by the division into two short equal parts. This peculiarity of poetic diction is expressed by divid ing the matter, and so speaking or singing in sep arated portions. Among the Arabians, who, how ever, have syllabic measure, each verse is divided into two hemistichs by a cwsura in the middle. \Vhat is termed 'service meter' in English versi fication is not unlike this in the main: it is the 'common meter' of the Psalm-versions, and of or dinary hymn books, though in the latter it is ar ranged in four lines— 'But one request I make to him I that sits the skies above, That I were fairly, out of debt I as I were out of love.' Suckling.
The simple two-membered rhythm hitherto de scribed prevails, especially in the book of Job, the Proverbs, and a portion of the Psalms; but in the last, and still more in the Prophets, there are numerous verses with three, four, or yet more members.
In verses consisting of three members (tris ticha) sometimes all three are parallel— 'Happy the man who walketh not in the paths of the unrighteous, Nor standeth in the way of sinners, Nor sitteth in the seat of scoffers.' Ps.
Sometimes two of the members stand opposed to the third— `To all the world goes forth their sound, To tht end of the world their words; For the sun he places a tabernacle in them.' Ps. xix :4.
Verses of four members contain either two sim ple parallels— 'With righteousness shall he judge the poor, And decide with equity for the afflicted of the people; He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth; With the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.' Is. xi :4.
Or the first and third answer to each other; also the second and fourth— 'That smote the people in anger With a continual stroke; That lorded it over the nations in wrath With unremitted oppression.' Is. xiv :6.
If the members are more numerous or tionate (Is. xi :II), or if the parallelism is irn perfect or irregular, the diction of poetry is lost and prose ensues; as is the case in Is. v:1-6, and frequently in the later prophets, as Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
It is not to be supposed that each pocm con sists exclusively of one sort of verse; for though this feature does present itself, yet frequently sev eral kinds are found together in one composi tion, so as to give great ease, freedom, and capa bility to the style. \Ve select the following beau tiful specimen, because a chorus is introduced— Chorus. How are the mighty fallen, And the weapons of war perished! 3. Lyrical and Dramatic Hebrew Poetry. Lyrical poetry so abounds in the Bible that we almost forget that it contains any other species. Doubtless lyrical poetry is the earliest, no less than the most varied and most abundant. Yet the lyrical poetry of the Israelites contains tokens of proceeding from an earlier kind. It is emi nently sententious—brief, pithy, and striking in the forms of language, and invariably moral or religious in its tone. Whence we infer that it had its rise in a species of poetry analogous to that which we find in the book of Proverbs. It embraced a great variety of topics, from the shortest and most fleeting effusion, as found in specimens already given, and in Ps. xv, cxxxi, cxxxiii, to the loftiest subjects treated in a full and detailed manner ; for instance. Deborah's song (Judg. v), and Ps. xviii and lxviii. It ran equally through all the moods of the human soul, noth ing being too lowly, too deep, or too high for the Hebrew lyre. It told how the horse and his Egyptian rider were sunk in the depths of the sea; it softly and sweetly sang of the benign ef fects of brotherly love. It uttered its wail over the corpse of a friend, and threw its graceful imagery around the royal nuptial couch. Song was its essence. Whatever its subject, it fore went neither the lyre nor the voice. Indeed its most general name signifies 'song;' song and poetry were the same. Another name for lyrical poetry is that which the Seventy render sabmos, #04461, 'psalm,' and which from its etymology seems to have a reference not so much to song as to the numbers into which the poet by his art wrought his thoughts and emotions. The latter word de scribes the making of an ode, the former its per formance on the lyre. Another general name for lyrical poetry is ,nos-keel', which is applied to poems of a certain kind (Ps. xxxii; xlii; xlv; Ili; Iv; lxxiv; lxxxviii; cxlii), and appears to denote an ode lofty in its sentiments and ex quisite in its execution. Under these general headsthere were several species,whose specificdif ferences it is not easy to determine.