Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/214

 POETRY

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POETRY

literary form, then, in which primitive religion and law, custom and pubUc life, were embodied, implies a poetic heightening of the ordinary mood, with effects in speech that may fall at length under deliberate rules; but asrulesmultiply, the spirit either evaporates or is diffused pretty equally over an eloquent prose. That all human language was once poetical appears everywhere probable from researches into folk-lore. That repetition of phrase, epithet, sentiment came earlier than more elaborate metres cannot well be denied. That religion should cleave to ancient forms while policy, law, and social intercourse move do%vn into the "cool element of prose ", we understand with- out difficulty. \\'hy the mediating style belongs to the historian we can also perceive; and how the "epic of gods" is transformed by slow steps into the chronicle and the reasoned narrative.

It does not seem, indeed, that the Israehtes ever possessed a true epic poetry, although their kinsfolk, the Babylonians, have left us well-kno\\Ti specimens, e. g., in the Gilgamcsh tablets. But tliis extensive form of Assyrian legend has not been imitated in the Old Testament. G. d'Eichthal, a Catholic, first under- took in his "Texte prim, du premier recit dela Crea- tion" (1875) to show that Genesis, i, was a poem. The same contention was urged by Bishop Clifford ("Dublin Review", 1882). and C. A. Briggs ventures on resohnng this narrative into a five-tone measure. Of late, other critics would perceive in the song of Lamech, in the story of the flood and of Babel, frag- ments of lost heroic poems. It is common knowledge that the so-called "creation-epic" of Assurbanipal is written in four-line stanzas with a caesura to each line. But of this no feature seems really discernible in the Hebrew Genesis (consult Gunkel, "Genesis", and ' ' Schopf ung und Chaos ") . There is no distinct metre except an occasional couplet or quatrain in Gen., i-x. But Ps. civ, on the wonders of God's works; Ps. cv, cvi, on His dealings with Israel; Job, xxx^viii-xlii, on the mysteries of nature and Providence; Prov., viii, 22-32, on creative wisdom, might have been wrought b}' genius of a different tj'pe into the narrative we de- fine as epical. Why did Israel choose another way? Perhaps because it sought after religion and cared hardly at all for cosmogonies. The imagination of Hebrews looked forward, not into the abysses of past time. And mythology was condemned by their belief in monotheism. Psalms are comprehended under two heads, — "Tehillim", hymns of praise, and "Tephil- loth", hymns of prayer, arranged for chanting in the Temple-services. They do not include any very an- cient folk-songs; but neither can we look on them as private devotional exercises. Somewhat analogous are the historic blessings and cursings, of a very old tradition, attributed to Jacob (Gen., xlix) and Moses (Deut.,xxviii, xxxii-iii). Popular poetry, not connect- ing itself with priestly ritual, touches life at raomentsof crisis and pours out its grief over death. Much of all this Holy Scripture has handed down to us. The Book of Lamentations is founded on the Kinah, the wailing chant improvised by women at funerals in a measure curiously broken, one full verse followed by one deficient, which reminded St. Jerome of the penta- meter. It seems to be aboriginal among Semites (cf. Amos, V, 2; Jer., xlviii, 36; Ezech., xix, 1; Ps. xix, 8-10). Martial songs, of which Judges, v; Num., xxt; Jos., x; I Kings, xviii, are specimens, formed the lost "Book of the Wars of the Lord". From another lost roll, the "Book of Jashar", i. e., of the Upright or of Israel, we derive the lament of David over Saul and Jonathan, as well as in substance Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple (II Kings, i, 3; III Kings, viii, 53). However we interpret Canticles, it is cer- tainly a round of wedding-songs and is high poetry; Ps. xlv is an epithalamium of the same character. The song of the vineyard may be added to our list (Is., V, 1). Historically, at all events, the Book of

Psalms is late and supposes prophecy to have gone before it.

A second stage is attained, the nearest approach in the Hebrew Testament to philosophy, when we reach the gnomic or "wisdom" poetry. Proverbs with its two line antitheses gives us the standard, passing into larger descriptions marked by numerals and end- ing in the acrostic or alphabetical praise of the "val- iant", i. e., the "virtuous" woman. Job takes its place among the great meditative poems of the world like "Hamlet" or "Faust", and is by no means of early date, as was once believed. In form it may be assigned to the same type as Prov., i-x; but it rises almost to the level of drama with its contrasted speak- ers and the interposition of Jahweh, which serves to it as a denouement. Notwithstanding its often corrupt text and changes consequent on re-editing at later times, it remains unquestionably the highest achieve- ment of inspired Hebrew verse. Ecclesiastes, with its mingled irony and sadness, falls into a purely didactic style; it has traces of an imperfect lyrical mood, but belongs to the prose of reflection quite as much as Seneca or Marcus Aurelius. The Hebrew text of Ben Sira, thus far recovered, is of a loftier kind, or even a prelude to the New Testament. As regards the Prophets, we can scarcely doubt that oracles were uttered in verse at Shiloh and other ancient shrines, just as at Delphi; or that inspired men and women threw their announcements commonly into that shape for repetition by their disciples, to whom they came as the "word of the Lord". To prophesy was to sing accompanied by an instrument (IV Kings, iii, 15). The prophetic records, as we now have them, were made up from comparatively brief poems, declaring the mind of Jahweh in messages, "burdens", to those whom the seer admonished. In Amos, Osee, Micheas, Isaias, the original chants may still be separated and the process of joining them together is comparatively slight. Prophecy at first was preaching; but as it became literature its forms passed out of verse (which it always handled somewhat freely) into prose. The Book of Ezechiel, though abounding in symbol and imager}-, cannot be deemed a poem. Yet from the nature of their mission the Prophets appealed to that in man's composition which transcends the finite, and their works constantly lift us to the regions of poetic idealism, however fluctuating the style between a strict or a looser measure of time. Divine oracles given as such fall into \-erse; expanded or commented on, they flow over into a less regular movement and become a sort of rhythmical prose. Our Latin and English translations often render this effect admi- rably; but attentive readers will note in the English A. V. many unconscious blank verses, sometimes the five foot iambic, and occasionally classic hexameters, e. g., "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" (Is., xiv, 12). There is likewise in Hebrew a recognized poetical vocabulary, though some critics deny it, and the grammar keeps a few archaic forms. We can distinguish popular unwritten prophecy as lasting from unknown periods down to Amos. From Amos to Esdras the prophets all write, still under poetic influences, but their singing has de- clined into a metaphor. The rhapsodists (moshelim) give place more and more to the rabbim. We hear the last echoes of Hebrew sacred poetry in St. Luke's Gospel; for the "Benedictus", the "Magnificat", the "Nunc Dimittis", though in Greek, are songs of Is- rael, moulded on Old Testament reminiscences.

Now we come into a debatable land, where critics dispute endlessly over the essence and make of Bib- lical versification, beyond the lines drawn by Lowth. What metrical system docs Hebrew follow? Take the single line; does it move by quantity, as Latin and Greek, or by accent, as English? If by accent, how is that managed? Should we reckon to each kind of verse a definite number of syllables, or allow an in-