Hebrew Poetry - Ancient Hebrew Poetry - Typepad

102:32:22:22:2Ps 46:7וְ‏ חֶ‏ רֶ‏ ב שָׁ‏ אוּלל ‏ֹא תָ‏ שׁוּב רֵ‏ יקָ‏ םמָ‏ תְ‏ נַי חַ‏ לְ‏ חָ‏ לָ‏ העַ‏ ל-‏ כֵּ‏ ן מָ‏ לְ‏ אוּ כְּ‏ צִ‏ ירֵ‏ י יוֹלֵ‏ דָ‏ הצִ‏ ירִ‏ ים אֲ‏ חָ‏ זוּנִי נִ‏ בְ‏ הַ‏ לְ‏ תִּ‏ י מֵ‏ רְ‏ אוֹתנַעֲ‏ וֵ‏ יתִ‏ י מִ‏ שְּׁ‏ מֹעַ‏ Nations rage,kingdoms topple;he gives forth his voice,the earth melts.2 Sam 1:22 From blood of the slain,from fat of the mighty,the bow of Jonathandid not turn back,the sword of Sauldid not return empty.Isa 21:3Therefore my loinsare full with trembling,pangs seize melike a woman in travail;I am too distraught to hear,too frightened to see.5. Beyond the Level of Strophe or UtteranceIsa 21:3A unit consisting of two or three utterances, referred to as a stanza in thegeneral rule, has no equivalent in prosodic structure theory. Stanzas also lacka firm foundation in the prosodic divisions preserved in MT. They are not asreadily identifiable as strophes or sections. Nevertheless, the assumption thatstanzas are composed of 2 to 3 strophes consistently yields acceptableresults.A unit consisting of 2 to 3 stanzas, referred to as a section in the generalrule, also has no equivalent in prosodic structure theory. The outerboundaries of a section are nevertheless clear in many instances.Occasionally, sections coincide with the division into open and closedparagraphs preserved in MT. Often, sections coincide with readilyidentifiable macrosemantic units.The largest identifiable prosodic unit of all under the general rule is a unitconsisting of one or more sections. It goes unnamed in prosodic structuretheory even if its existence is not questioned. In ancient Hebrew verse, theLast Revised 2/6/2007