The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

70 THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH
the level of a Dutch landscape is here excluded by the
overwhelming mass of the troubles bewailed. The
cataract of sorrow awes us with the greatness of its
volume and the thunder of its fall.
From suggestions thus rising out of a consideration
of the opening word of the elegy we may be led on to
a perception of similar traits in the body of this poetry.
It is emotional in character ; it is vague in description
and it sets before us visions of vast woe.
But now it is quite clear that poetry such as this
must be something else than the wild expression of
grief. It is a product of reflection. The acute stage
of suffering is over. The writer is musing upon a sad
past ; or if at times he is reflecting on a present state
of distress, still he is regarding this as the result of
more violent scenes, in the midst of which the last
thing a man would think of doing would be to sit down
and compose a poem. This reflective poetry v/ill give
us emotion, still warm, but shot with thought.
The reflectiveness of the elegy does not take the
direction of philosophy. It does not speculate on the
mystery of suffering. It does not ask such obstinate
questions, or engage in such vexatious dialectics, as
circle about the problem of evil in the. Book of Job.
Leaving those difficult matters to the theologians who
care to wrestle with them, the elegist is satisfied to
dwell on his theme in a quiet, meditative mood, and
.
to permit his ideas to flow on spontaneously as in a
reverie. Thus it happens that, artificial as is the form
of his verse, the underlying thought seems to be natural
and unforced. In this way he represents to us the
afterglow of sunset which follows the day of storm
and terror.
The afterglov/ is beautiful—that is what the elegy
;