Definitions
The meaning of Poetry in the Bible
(From Easton's Bible Dictionary)
has been well defined as "the measured language of emotion." Hebrew poetry deals almost exclusively with the great question of man's relation to God. "Guilt, condemnation, punishment, pardon, redemption, repentance are the awful themes of this heaven-born poetry." Synonymous or cognate parallelism, where the same idea is repeated in the same words (Psalms 93:3; 94:1; Proverbs 6:2), or in different words (Psalms 222328114,23,28,114, etc.); or where it is expressed in a positive form in the one clause and in a negative in the other (Psalms 40:12; Proverbs 6:26); or where the same idea is expressed in three successive clauses (Psalms 40:15,16); or in a double parallelism, the first and second clauses corresponding to the third and fourth (Isaiah 9:1; 61:10,11). Antithetic parallelism, where the idea of the second clause is the converse of that of the first (Psalms 20:8; 27:6,7; 34:11; 37:9,17,21,22). This is the common form of gnomic or proverbial poetry. (See Proverbs 1015-15.) Synthetic or constructive or compound parallelism, where each clause or sentence contains some accessory idea enforcing the main idea (Psalms 19:7-10; 85:12; Job 3:3-9; Isaiah 1:5-9). Introverted parallelism, in which of four clauses the first answers to the fourth and the second to the third (Psalms 135:15-18; Proverbs 23:15,16), or where the second line reverses the order of words in the first (Psalms 86:2). Hebrew poetry sometimes assumes other forms than these. An alphabetical arrangement is sometimes adopted for the purpose of connecting clauses or sentences. Thus in the following the initial words of the respective verses begin with the letters of the alphabet in regular succession: Proverbs 31:10-31; Lam. 1,2,3,4; Psalms 253437145,34,37,145. Psalms 119 has a letter of the alphabet in regular order beginning every eighth verse. The repetition of the same verse or of some emphatic expression at intervals (Psalms 42107,107, where the refrain is in verses, 8,15,21,31). (Compare also Isaiah 9:8-10:4;; Amos 1:3,6,9,11,13; 2:1,4,6.) Gradation, in which the thought of one verse is resumed in another (Psalms 121). Several odes of great poetical beauty are found in the historical books of the Old Testament, such as the song of Moses (Exodus 15), the song of Deborah (Judg. 5), of Hannah (I Samuel 2), of Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:9-20), of Habakkuk (Habakkuk 3), and David's "song of the bow" (II Samuel 1:19-27).
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