Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/213

 POETRY

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POETRY

properly amenable to them. "God speaks to man- kind", said medieval Jewish commentators, "in the language of the children of men." This observation, while it justifies verbal criticism, points out the way to it. Literature demands a special study; and Hebrew literature, because it is sacred, all the more, inasmuch as the outcome of misunderstandings in regard to it has ever been disaster. No one can read attentively the poorest version of the Old Testament without feel- ing how strong a vein of poetry runs through its pages. We need not venture on a definition of what poetry means; it is a peculiar form of imagination and expres- sion which bears witness to itself. Verse has been called by Ernest Hello, "that rare splendour, born of music and the word " ; now assuredly in writings such as many of the Psalms, in the Prophets, the Book of Job, and Proverbs we recognize its presence. On the other hand, from the great collection of documents which we term Clironicles {Paralipomena), Ezra, and Nehemias, this quality is almost entirely absent ; mat- ter and style announce that we are dealing with prose. We open the Hebrew Bible, and we find our judgment confirmed by the editors of the Massora — the received and vocalized text. Conspicuously, where the title indicates "songs" {shirim, Ex., xv, 1; Num., xxi, 17), the lines are parted into verse; for instance, Deut., xxxii. Judges, v, II Kings, xxii. But more. As Gins- burg tells us, "In the best M.S.S. the fines are poeti- cally di^aded and arranged in hemistichs" throughout the Psalter, Proverbs, and Job. And this was enjoined by the Synagogue. Yet again, the punctuation by the period (soph pasuk), which marks a complete state- ment, coincides with a rhythmical pause in nearly all such passages, demonstrating that the ancient redact ors between 200 and 600 a. d. agreed as to sense and sound with the moderns who take the same citations for poetry. So emphatic indeed is this impression that, however we print either text or rendering, the disjecta membra poelce will be always visible. Hebrew forms of verse have been much disputed over; but the com- bination of a lively picturesque meaning with a defi- nite measure is beyond denial in the places alleged. Such are the "Songs of Sion" (Ps. cxxxvii, 3). This was knowTi and felt from the earliest times. Josephus describes the Hebrew poets as writing in "hexameter" (Antiq., II, xvi); St. Jerome speaks of their "hexam- eters and pentameters"; while in his own transla- tions he has constantly succeeded in a happy rhythm, not, however, giving verse for verse. He is markedly solemn and musical in the Latin of the Book of Job. The English A. V. abounds in magnificent effects of a similar kind. Given, in short, the original structure, it would be almost impossible not in some degree to reproduce it, even in our \\'estern versions.

But on what system was the poetry of the Old Tes- tament composed? Rabbi Kimchi and Eben Ezra had caught sight of an arrangement which they termed kaful, or doubling of enunciation. But to bring this out as a principle was reserved for Bishop R. Lowth, whose lectures "De sacra poesi Hebra>orum" (1741 begun, finally published 1753) became the starting point of all subsequent inquiries. In his Preface to Isaiah (1778, German 1779) he gave fresh illustrations, which led on to Herder's more philosophical handling of the subject (1782-3). Lowth convinced scholars that Hebrew verse moved on the scheme of parallelism, statement revolving upon statement, by antiphon or return, generally in double members, one of which repeated the other with variations of words or some deflection of meaning. Equal measures, more or less identical sense, the.se were its component parts. Degrees in likeness, and the contrast which attends on likeness, gave rise, said Lowth, to synonymous, anti- thetic, or synthetic arrangement of members. Modern research inclines to take the inashal or similitude as a primitive norm for Hebrew verse in general; and Prov., X, is quoted by way of showing the three varie-

ties indicated by Lowth. Evidently, given a double measure, it admits of combinations ever more subtle and involved. We will speak of other developments later. But the prevailing forms were exliibited in Lowth's "Proelections". Recent comparisons of this device with similar structures in Babylonian, Assyrian and Egyptian poetical remains discover its extreme antiquity (.see for the first Schrader; for Egj'pt, W. Max Miiller, 1899; and on the whole, C. A. Briggs, "Gen. Introd. to H. Script.", 1899). It might seem fanciful to call the type from which parallelism orig- inates "echo-music", yet nothing is more fikely than that the earliest rhythm was a kind of echo, whereby the object of expression became fixed and emphasized. See thie remarkable instances in Deborah's chant (Judges, V, 26-30) etc. Here we must observe how the logic of feeling, as distinguished from the logic of reasoning, controls the poet's mind. That mind, until a late period, was not individual, but collective; it was the organ of a tribe, a public worship, a national belief; hence, it could shape its ideas only into concrete forms, real yet sj'mbolical; it expressed emotions, not ab- stractions, and it was altogether concerned with per- sons, human or superhuman. Poetry, thus inspired, glances to and fro, is guided by changing moods, darts upon living objects, and describes them from its own centre. It is essentially subjective, and a lyrical outcry. It does not argue; it pleads, blames, praises, breaks into cursing or blessing, and is most effective when most excited. To such a temperament repeti- tion becomes a potent weapon, a divine or deadly rhetoric of which the keynote is passion. Its tense is either the present (including the future perceived as though here and now), or a moving past seen while it moves.

Passion and vision — let us take these to be the motive and the method of all such primitive poetry. We may compare II Kings, x.xiii, 2, David's last words, "The sweet Psalmist of Israel, said 'The spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was on my tongue ' " ; or Ps. xliv, 2, "My heart bursts out with a goodly matter, my tongue is the pen of a ready writer"; or Job, xxxii, 18, "I am full of words, the spirit within constraineth me"; but especially Num., xxiv, 4, "He hath said, the man who heard the words of God, who saw the \'ision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open". These declarations lead up to impassioned metrical utterances, while they be- token the close relation which unites Hebrew poetry with prophecy. Both alike are a pouring forth of feel- ings too violent to be held in, aroused by contemplation not of the abstract or the general, but of persons and events, in their living power. To this belongs the idea of recurrence. Curtius observes acutely, "The grad- ual realization and repetition of an action are regarded by language as nearly akin." (Elucidations, 143, quoted by Driver, "Treatise on the Use of Tenses in Hebrew'', xv.) The whole being moves as the object impresses it; speech, music, dancing, gesture leap out, as it were, to meet the friend or enemy who draws nigh. The Semites term their religious festivals a "hag", i. e. a dance (Ex., xii, 14; xxxii, 5, 19; Deut., xvi, 10, 12; andfrequently),of which the reminiscence is vividly shown in the whirling motion and repeated acclamations practised by dervishes among Moham- medans to this day. We may thus connect the lyrical drama out of which in due course the Hebrews devel- oped their temple-liturgy and the Psalms, with Greek dithyrambs, the chorus of the Athenian .stage, and the anapaestic strophes danced thereon to a lively musical accompaniment. When past or future is caught up after this manner, made present as though seen, and flung into a series of actions, the singer prophesies. For what else is prophecy than the vision of things absent in space or time, or hidden from common eyes? The state of mind corresponding is "trance" ("deep sleep". Gen., xv, 12; Job, iv, 13; Ezech., viii, 1). The