The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

or again the very long line,
HEBREW ELEGIES 65
"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed—because
His compassions fail not." '
Now although this is only a structural feature it
points to inferences of deeper significance. It shews
that the Hebrew poets paid special attention to the
elegy as a species of verse to be treated apart, and
therefore that they attached a peculiar significance to
the ideas and feelings it expresses. The ease with
which the transition to the elegiac form of verse is
made whenever an occasion for using it occurs is a
hint that this must have been familiar to the Jews.
Possibly it was in common use at funerals in the dirge.
We mieet with an early specimen of this verse in Amos,
when, just after announcing that he is about to utter
a lamentation over the house of Israel, the herdsman
of Tekoa breaks into elegiacs with the words,
"The virgin daughter of Israel is fallen— she shall no more rise :
She is cast down upon her land—there is none to raise her up." ^
Similarly constructed elegiac pieces are scattered
over the Old Testament scriptures from the eighth
century b.c. onwards. Several illustrations of this
peculiar kind of metre are to be found in the Psalms. It
is employed ironically with terrible effect in the Book of
Isaiah, where the mock lament over the death of the king
of Babylon is constructed in the form of a true elegy.
When the prophet made a sudden transition from his
normal style to sombre funereal measures his purpose
would be at once recognised, for his words would sound
like the tolling bell and the muffled drums that announce
' iii. 22. ^ Amos v. 2.