movement. Thus there is the closest correspondence between the emotion and its expression, as the emotion gives natural movement and harmonious undulation to the expression by its own pulsations and vibrations. The pulsations are expressed by the beat of the accent, which, falling as a rule on the ultimate in Hebrew words, strikes with peculiar power; and the vibrations are expressed in accordance with the great variety of movement of which they are capable in the parallelism of members. As W. Robertson Smith correctly says: "Among the Hebrews all thought stands in immediate contact with living impressions and feelings, and so if incapable of rising to the abstract is prevented from sinking to the unreal." This faithful mirroring of the concrete in the poetic expression is the secret of its power over the masses of mankind, who are sensible of its immediate influence upon them, although they may be incapable of giving a logical analysis of it. 3. It is essentially subjective. The poet sings or writes from the vibrating chords of his own soul's emotions, presenting the varied phases of his own experience, in sorrow and joy, in faith and hope, in love and adoration, in conflict, agony, and despair, in ecstasy and transport, in vindication of himself and imprecation upon his enemies. Even when the external world is attentively regarded, it is not for itself alone, but on account of its relation to the poet's own soul as he is brought into contact and sympathy with it. This characteristic of Hebrew poetry is so marked in the Psalter, Proverbs, and book of Job, as to give their entire theology an anthropological and indeed an ethical character. Man's inmost soul, and all the vast variety of human experience, are presented in Hebrew poetry in the common experience of humanity of all ages and of all lands. 4. It is sententious. The Hebrew poet expresses his ethical and religious emotions in brief, terse, pregnant sentences loosely related one with another, and often without any essential connection, except through the common unity of the central theme. They are uttered as intuitions, that which is immediately seen and felt, rather than as products of logical reflection, or careful 1 British Quarterly, January, 1877, p. 36. elaborations of a constructive imagination. The parts of the poem, greater and lesser, are distinct parts, the distinction often being so sharp and abrupt that it is difficult to distinguish and separate the various sections of the poem, owing to the very fact of the great variety of possibility of division, in which it is a question simply of more or less. The author's soul vibrates with the beatings of the central theme, so that the movement of the poem is sometimes from the same base to a more advanced thought, then from a corresponding base or from a contrasted one; and at times, indeed, step by step, in marching or climbing measures. As Aglen says, "Hebrew eloquence is a lively succession of vigorous and incisive sentences, producing in literature the same effect which the style called arabesque produces in architecture. Hebrew wisdom finds its complete utterance in the short, pithy proverb. Hebrew poetry wants no further art than a rhythmical adaptation of the same sententious style." Hence the complexity and confusion of Hebrew poetry to minds which would find strict logical relations between the various members of the poem, and constrain them after occidental methods. Hence the extravagance of Hebrew figures of speech, which transgress all classic rules of style, heaping up and mixing metaphors, presenting the theme in such a variety of images, and with such exceeding richness of colouring, that the Western critic is perplexed, confused, and bewildered in striving to harmonize them into a consistent whole. Hebrew poetry appeals through numberless concrete images to the emotional and religious nature, and can only be apprehended by entering into sympathetic relations with it by following the guidance of its members to their central theme, to which they are all in subjection as to a prince, while in comparative independence of one another. 5. It is realistic. Shairp says: "Whenever the soul comes into living contact with fact and truth, whenever it realizes these with more than common vividness, there arises a thrill of joy, a glow of emotion. And the expression of that thrill, that glow, is poetry. The nobler the objects, the nobler will be the poetry they awaken when they fall on the heart of a true 1 Bible Educator, Vol. II. p. 340. poet." The Hebrew poets entered into deep and intimate fellowship with external nature, the world of animal, vegetable, and material forces; and by regarding them as in immediate connection with God and man, dealt only with the noblest themes. To the Hebrew poet all nature was animate with the influence of the Divine Spirit, who was the agent in the creation, brooding over the chaos, and conducts the whole universe in its development toward the exaltation of the creature to closer communion with God, so that it may attain its glory in the divine glory. Hence all nature is aglow with the glory of God, declaring Him in His being and attributes, praising Him for His wisdom and goodness, His minister to do His pleasure, rejoicing at His advent and taking part in His theophanies. And so it is the representation of Hebrew poetry that all nature shares in the destiny of man. In its origin it led by insensible gradations to man, its crown and head, the masterpiece of the divine workman. In his fall it shared with him in the curse; and to his redemption it ever looks forward, with longing hope and throes of expectation, as the redemption of the entire creation. And so there is no poetry so sympathetic with nature, so realistic, so sensuous and glowing in its representations of nature, as Hebrew poetry. This feature of the sacred writings, which has exposed them to the attacks of the physical sciences, presenting a wide and varied field of criticism, is really one of their most striking features of excellence, commending them to the simple-minded lovers of nature; for while the Hebrew Scriptures do not teach truths and facts of science in scientific forms, yet they alone, of ancient poetry, laid hold of the eternal principles, the most essential facts and forms of objects of nature, with a sense of truth and beauty that none but sacred poets, enlightened by the Spirit of God, have been enabled to do. Hence it is that not even the sensuous romantic poetry of modern times, enriched with the vast stores of research of modern science, can equal the poetry of the Bible in its faithfulness to nature, its vividness and graphic power, its true and intense admiration of the beauties of nature and reverence of its sublimities. 1 Poetic Interpretation of Nature, p. 15. II. ANCIENT THEORIES OF HEBREW POETRY The leading characteristics of Hebrew poetry determine its forms of expression; its internal spirit sways and controls the form with absolute, yea, even with capricious, power. The Hebrew poets seem acquainted with those various forms of artistic expression used by the poets of other nations to adorn their poetry, yet they do not employ them as rules or principles of their art, constraining their thought and emotion into conformity with them, but rather use them freely for particular purposes and momentary effects. Indeed Hebrew poetry attained its richest development at a period when these various external beauties of form had not been elaborated into a system, as was the case at a subsequent time in other nations of the same family of languages. 2 There are various ways employed in the poetry of the sister languages of measuring and adorning the verses. Thus rhyme is of exceeding importance in Arabic poetry, having its fixed rules 1 carefully elaborated. But no such rules can be found in Hebrew poetry. Rhyme exists, and is used at times with great effect to give force to the variations in the play of the emotion by bringing the variations to harmonious conclusions; but this seldom extends beyond a group of verses or a strophe. So also the Hebrew poet delights in the play of words, using their varied and contrasted meanings, changing the sense by the slight change of a letter, or contrasting the sense all the more forcibly in the use of words of similar form and vocalization, and sometimes of two or three such in the parallel verses. Alliteration and assonance are also freely employed. All this is in order that the form may correspond as closely as possible to the thought and emotion in their variations, as synonymous, antithetical, and progressive; and that the colouring of the expression may heighten its effect. The principle of rhyme, however, remains entirely free. It is not developed into a system and artistic rules. The measurement of the verses, or the principle of metres, is 1 Wright, Arabic Grammar, 2d ed., II. pp. 377-381. thoroughly developed in Arabic poetry, where they are ordinarily reckoned as sixteen in number.1 Repeated efforts have been made to find a system of metres in Hebrew poetry. Thus Josephus 2 represents that the songs Ex. 15 and Deut. 32 were written in hexameters, and that the Psalms were written in several metres, such as trimeters and pentameters. Eusebius 3 says that Deut. 32 and Ps. 18 are in heroic metre of sixteen syllables, and that trimeters and other metres were employed by the Hebrews. Jerome compares Hebrew poetry with the Greek poetry of Pindar, Alcæus, and Sappho, and represents the book of Job as composed mainly of hexameters with the movement of dactyls and spondees; and 5 he finds in the Psalter iambic trimeters and tetrameters. But these writers seem to have been misled by their desire to assimilate Hebrew poetry to the great productions of the classic nations with which they were familiar. 4 And yet there is a solid basis of fact underlying these statements. It is true that the Massoretic system of vowel points does not admit of any such arrangement of measured feet as is known in Greek and Latin poetry. The fragments of the transliterated Hebrew of Origen's Hexapla show us that the Massoretic system is extremely artificial; the pointing of Origen's time does not yield the measured feet, or the equal number of syllables in lines, according to the statement of Eusebius, who must have either built upon the Hebrew pronunciation as given by Origen, or else upon information from Hebrew sources or upon tradition. Jerome must have known the Hebrew pronunciation of his day and the measures of poetry as known to the Hebrew of his day. But it seems altogether likely that the accurate pronunciation of the ancient Hebrew had already been lost, and that the knowledge of the measures of biblical poetry had perished likewise. There is no evidence in Jerome's version that he understood the measures of biblical poetry. There is certainly no heroic metre of sixteen syllables in Ps. 18 or Deut. 32. The 1 Wright, Arabic Grammar, 2d ed., II. p. 387. 2 Antiquities, II. 16, IV. 8, VII. 12. 5 Epist. ad Paulam. 3 De Præp. Evang., XI. 5. 4 Preface to the Book of Job. |