The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

CHAPTER XI
THE MAN THAT HATH SEEN AFFLICTION
WHETHER we regard it from a literary, a speculative,
or a religious point of view, the third and
central elegy cannot fail to strike us as by far the best
of the five. The workmanship of this poem is most
elaborate in conception and most finished in execution,
the thought is most fresh and striking, and the spiritual
tone most elevated, and, in the best sense of the word,
evangelical. Like Tennyson, who is most poetic when
he is most artistic, as in his lyrics, and like all the
great sonneteers, the author of this exquisite Hebrew
melody has not found his ideas to be cramped by the
rigorous rules of composition. It would seem that to
a master the elaborate regulations that fetter an inferior
mind are no hindrances, but rather instruments fitted
to his hand, and all the more ser\nceable for their
exactness. Possibly the artistic refinement of form
stimulates thought and rouses the poet to exert his
best powers ; or perhaps—and this is more probable
he selects the richer robe for the purpose of clothing
his choicer conceptions. Here we have the acrostics
worked up into triplets, so that they now appear at
the beginning of every line, each letter occurring three
times successively as an initial, and the whole poem
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