It may have struck the reader as somewhat curious that the poetical pieces of which we spoke above should, in the common version of the Bible, be scarcely, if at all, distinguishable from prose. We do not know whether there is anything extra ordinary in this. Much of classical poetry, if turned into English prose, would lose most of its poetic characteristics ; but, in general, the Hebrew poetry suffers less than perhaps any other by trans fusion into a prosaic element : to which fact it is owing that the Book of Psalms, in the English version, is, notwithstanding its form, eminently poetic. There are, however, cases in which only the experienced eye can trace the poetic in and under the prosaic attire in which it appears in the vulgar translation. Nor, until the subject of He brew poetry had been long and well studied, did the learned succeed in detecting many a poetic gem contained in the Bible. In truth, poetry and prose, from their very nature, stand near to each other, and in the earlier stages of their existence are discriminated only by faint and vanishing lines. If we regard the thought, prose sometimes even now rises to the loftiness of poetry. If we regard the clothing, the simpler form of poetry is scarcely more than prose ; and rhetorical or measured prose passes into the domain of poetry. A sonnet of Wordsworth could be converted into prose with a very few changes ; a fable of Krummacher requires only to be distributed into lines in order to make blank verse, which might be compared even with that of Milton. Now, in translations, the form is for the most part lost ; there remains only the substance, and poetic sentiment ranges from the humblest to the loftiest topics. So with the Hebrew poetry in its original and native state. Whether in its case poetry sprang from prose, or prose from poetry, they are both branches of one tree, and bear in their earlier stages a very close re semblance. The similarity is the greater in the literature of the Hebrews, because their poetic forms are less determinate than those of some other nations : they had, indeed, a rhythm ; but so had their prose, and their poetic rhythm was more like that of our blank verse than of our rhymed metre. Of poetical feet they appear to have known no thing, and in consequence their verse must be less measured and less strict. Its melody was rather that of thought than of art and skill—spontaneous, like their religious feelings, and therefore deep and impressive, but less subject to law, and escaping from the hard limits of exact definition. Rhyme, properly so called, is disowned as well as metre. Yet Hebrew verse, as it had a kind of measured tread, so had it a jingle in its feet, for several lines are sometimes found terminating with the same letter. In the main, however, its essential form was in the thought. Ideas are made to recur under such relations that the substance itself marks the form, and the two are so blended into one that their union is essential to constitute poetry. It is, indeed, incorrect to say that ` the Hebrew poetry is characterised by the recurrence of similar ideas' (Latham's English Language, p. 372), if by this it is intended to intimate that such a peculiarity is the sole characteristic of Hebrew poetry. One, and that the chief, characteristic of that poetry, such recurrence is ; but there are also characteristics in form as well as in thought. Of these it may be sufficient to mention the following :—(I) There is a verbal rhythm, in which a harmony is found beyond what prose ordinarily presents ; but as the true pronunciation of the Hebrew has been long lost, this quality can be only imperfectly appre ciated. (2) There is a correspondence of words, i e., the words in one verse, or member, answer to the words in another ; for as the sense in the one echoes the sense in the other, so also form cor responds with form, and word with word. This correspondence in form will fully appear when we give instances of the parallelism in sentiment ; meanwhile, an idea of it may be formed from these specimens Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul ? And why art thou disquieted in me ?' Ps. xliii. 5. The memory of the just is a blessing ; But the name of the wicked shall rot.' Prov. x. 7.
He turneth rivers into a desert, And water-springs into dry ground.'
Ps. evil. 33.
In the original this similarity in construction is more exact and more apparent. At the same time it is a free, and not a strict correspondence that prevails ; a correspondence to be caught and recognised by the ear in the general progress of the poem, or the general structure of a couplet or a triplet, but which is not of a nature to be exactly measured or set forth by such aids as counting with the fingers will afford. (3) Inversion holds a distinguished place in the structure of Hebrew poetry, as in that of every other ; yet here again the remark already made holds good ; it is only a modified inversion that prevails, by no means (in general) equalling that of the Greeks and Romans in boldness, decision, and prevalence. Every one will, however, recognise this inversion in the following instances, as distinguishing the passages from ordinary prose :— ' Amid thought in visions of the night, When deep sleep falleth upon men, Fear and horror came upon me.'—Job iv. 13.
' To me men gave ear and waited, To my words they made no reply.' Job xxix. 21.
For three transgressions of Damascus, And for four will I not turn away its punish.
ment.' Amos i. 3.
His grave was appointed with the wicked, And with the rich man was his sepulchre.' Is. liii. 9.
(4) The last verbal peculiarity of Hebrew poetry which we notice is, that its language betrays an archaical character, a licence, and in general a poetic hue and colouring which cannot be con founded with the simple, lowly, and unrhythmical diction of prose. The formation of a poetic diction is, in any nation, dependent on the possession by that nation of a poetical temperament, as much as of a poetical history. Wherever these two ele ments are found, the birth of poetry and the forma tion of a poetical language are certain. Great events give rise to strong passions, and strong pas sions are the parents of noble truths ; which, when they spring from and nestle in a poetic tempera ment, cannot fail to create for themselves an appro priate phraseology, in which the tame and quiet march of prose is avoided, and all the loftier figures of speech are put into requisition. For a time, in deed, the line of demarkation between the diction of prose and that of poetry will not be very strongly marked ; for poetry will predominate, as in men's deeds so in their words, and, if they as yet have any, in their literature. Soon, however, the pas sions grow cool, enthusiasm wanes, a great gulf opens between the actual and the ideal—the ideal having ceased to be actual in ceasing to be possible —and a separate style of language for prose and poetry becomes as inevitable as the diversity of attire in which holy and ordinary days have their respective duties discharged.
In no nation was the union of the two requisites of which we have spoken found in fuller measure than among the Hebrews. Theirs was eminently a poetic temperament ; their earliest history was an heroic without ceasing to be an historic age, whilst the loftiest of all truths circulated in their souls, and glowed on and started from their lips. Hence their language, in its earliest stages, is sur passingly poetic. Let the reader peruse, even in our translation, the first chapters of Genesis, or parts of the Book of Job, and he cannot but per ceive the poetic element in which these noble com positions have almost their essence. And hence the difficulty of determining with accuracy the time when a poetic diction, strictly so termed, be gan to make its appearance. Partially, such a diction must be recognised in the earliest specimens we have of Hebrew poetry, nor is it hard to trace, if not in words, yet in colouring and manner, signs of this imaginative dress ; but the process was not completed, the diction was not thoroughly formed, until the Hebrew bard had produced its highest strains, and tried his powers on various species of composition. The period when this excellence was reached was the age of Solomon, when the rest, peace, opulence, and culture which were the fruits of the lofty mind and proud achievements of David, had had time to bring their best fruits to maturity—a ripeness to which the Israelite history had in various ways contributed during many suc cessive generations.