music of thi Hebrews. See Music. Referring to the articles which bear on the subject, we merely remark that both music ami dancing wire connected with sa-
cred son- in its earliest manifestations, though it was only at a comparatively late period, when David ami
Soloi i had given their master-powers to the -rand
performances of the Temple-service, that poetry came forth in all its excellence, and music lent its full aid to its solemn and sublime sentiments.
6. In Hebrew, as in other languages, there is a pecul- iarity about the diction used in poetry a kind o! poet- ical dialect, characterized by archaic ami irregular forms of words, abrupt constructions, and unusual inflections, which distinguish it from the contemporary prose or historical style. It is universally observed that archaic forms and usages of words linger iii the poetry of a lan- guage alter they have fallen out of ordinary use. A fi w of these forms and usages are here given from Ges< nius's Lehrgebaude. The Pie] and llipbil voices are used in- transitively (Jer. Ii, 56 ; Ezek. x, 7; Jobxxix,24): the
a] opated future i- used as a present (Job xv. 33; Psa.
xi, G; Isa. xlii. 6). The termination r^ is found for the ordinary feminine !"i; i Exod. xv. •_'; Gen. xlix, 22; Psa. exxxii, 4) ; and for the plural d"1" we hav« " ! xv, 13; Ezek. xxvi, 18) and "»: (Jer. xxii. 1 1 -. Amos \ ii. I). Theverbal suffixes, '"V, IB;, and ha- | Exod.xv,9), and the pronominal suffixes to mums. IE" for 0", and 1i"|i- for "nT (Hab. iii, 10), are peculiar to the poetical books; as are "ill (Psa. cxvi, 12), "-", (Deut. xxxii. 37; Psa. xi,7),andthe more unusualforms,i"l33il"\ i Ezek. si, lo.-:-- (Ezek. i, 11), nSS^ (Ezek. xiii* 20). tn poetical language also we find iT33 for *? or "-. " -3 for ". ""en for Z. "2~ for 3; the plural forms of the prepositions, ""X for -X. "":'. for IV. "?": and the peculiar forms of the lining.""" for '"}■ "~~'j F°* — n. ""•:" for DTa?. and so on.
II. I : isting /.'• mains of A m u nt U< hn w /'<■■ try.— The poetry which i- found in the Bible, rich and multifarious as it is. appears to be only a remnant ofa still wid< r and fuller sphere of Shemitic literature. The New I , -la- ment is in facl comprised in our definition, for, besides scattered portions, which, under a prosaic form, convey a poetic ti ght, the entire I k of the Apocalypse
abounds in poetry. In no nation was the union of the requisites of which we have spoken above found in
isure than among the Hebrews. Theirs was eminently a poetic temperament ; their earliest history was a heroic withoul ceasing to be a historic age, while the Loftiest ol all truths circulated in their soul-, and glowed on and started from their lips. Hence their
in its earliest stages, is surpassingly poetic. In one sense the Bible is full of poetry; for very much of its contents, which is merely prosaic in form, ri-cs. by force of the noble sentiments which it enunciates, and the striking or splendid imagery with which these st n- timents are adorm d, into the sphere of real poetry, [n- dependentlj of this poetic pros,., there is in the Bible much writing which has all the ordinary charade ristics of poetry. Even the unlearned reader can hardly fail to recognise al o rice of poel ry in
parts of the Bible. It is no slight attestation t sentially poetic character of Hebrew poetry thai its po- etical qualities shine through the distorting coverings ol a prose translation. .Much of the Biblical | indeed, In, id n from the ordinary reader by its prose ac-
POETRY
317
POETRY
companiments, standing, as it does, undistinguished in the midst of historical narrations.
It is a phenomenon which is universally observed in the literature of all nations, that the earliest form in which the thoughts and feelings of a people find utter- ance is the poetic. Prose is an aftergrowth, the vehicle of less spontaneous, because more formal, expression. Snatches of poetry are discovered in the oldest prose compositions. Even in Gen. iv, 23 sq. are found a few lines of poetry, which Herder incorrectly terms "the song of t lie sword," thinking it commemorative of the first formation of that weapon. To us it appears to be a fragment of a larger poem, uttered in lamentation for a homicide committed by Lamech, probably in self-de- fence. See Lamech. Herder finds in this piece all the characteristics of Hebrew poetry. It is. lie thinks, lyr- ical, has a proportion between its several lines, and even assonance; in the original the first four lines terminate with the same letter, making a single or semi-rhyme.
Another poetic scrap is found in Exod. xxxii, 18. Being told by Joshua, on occasion of descending from the mount, when the people had made the golden calf, and were tumultuously offering it their worship —
"The sound of war is iu the camp ;" Moses said :
"Not the sound of a shout for victory,
Nor the sound of a shout for falling;
The sound of a shout for rejoicing
do I hear." The correspondence in form in the original is here very exact and striking, so that it is difficult to deny that the piece is poetic. If so, are we to conclude that the temperament of the Israelites was so deeply poetic that Moses and Joshua should rind the excite- ment of this occasion sufficient to strike improvisatore verses from their lips? Or have we here a quotation from some still older song, which occurred to the minds of the speakers by the force of resemblance? Other in- stances of scattered poetic pieces may be found in Numb. xxi, 14, 15 ; also ver. 18 and 27 ; in which passages evidence may be found that we are not in possession of the entire mass of Hebrew, or, at least, Shemitic litera- ture. Further specimens of very7 early poetry are found in Numb, xxiii. 7 sq., 18 sq. ; xxiv, 3, 15. The ordi- nary train of thought and feeling presented in Hebrew poetry is entirely of a moral or religious kind ; but there are occasions when other topics are introduced. The entire Song of Solomon many regard as purely an erotic idyl, and considered as such it possesses excellences of a very high description. In Amos vi, 3 sq. may be seen a tine passage of satire in a denunciation of the luxurious and oppressive aristocracy of Israel. Subjects of a similar secular kind may be found treated, yet never without a moral or religious aim, in Isa. ix, 3 ; Jer. xxv, 10; xlviii, 33; Rev. xviii, 22 sq. But, independently of the Song of Solomon, the most sensuous ode is perhaps the 45th Psalm, which Herder and Ewald consider an epithalamium. Further illustrations of this part of the subject appear under the next division.