CHAPTER XI

CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD TESTAMENT POETRY

From the very dawn of history poetry has been indissolubly connected with the highest instincts of the race. It has been made the record of the profoundest convictions of men, of their dearest hopes, their divinest dreams. Men have believed in many ages that the poet is inspired, that he is the speaker of divine oracles. How appropriate, then, that the writers of this great Book should often speak in poetry, that those choice spirits of the human race who have been permitted to climb to the very mountain tops of truth where God's sunlight is not obstructed nor dimmed by the mists and shadows of the earth-valleys, should give that truth to us in the most elevated and inspiring form of speech.

The body of Hebrew poetry found in the Bible has many noble qualities. In the first place it is cosmopolitan in spirit. We know that the Hebrews were exclusive and in many ways narrow. From their customs and many of their beliefs, we should little expect to find in their poetry a sympathy wider than their country, a spirit kinder than their creed; but we do find them. It is said that the poetry of the Bible loses less in translation into other languages than any other body of poetry whatsoever. It is because it deals with things that are universally true, because it reaches those deep things that are in the heart of humanity everywhere.

Again, the Bible poetry is full of imaginative power. The poet here does indeed cast his eye from earth to heaven and from heaven to earth, and body forth forms of things unknown more brilliantly than ever poet did in any other age. He makes the giant hills to skip and clap their hands; he makes Jehovah ride upon the wings

of the wind; causes the earth to tremble at the sound of his voice or the hills to smoke at his touch.

To these qualities may be added the grace of simplicity. The grandest ideas are set forth so simply and plainly that they are brought home to the mind and heart of every reader who wishes to understand. The psalms are suited to men of all capacities and degrees of culture. They are popular and yet elevating, clear and yet profound, easily comprehended and yet inexhaustibly deep.

But perhaps the poetic beauty in which the Bible most excels is in its description of the world around us. Here we find the brightest and most vivacious landscape, the happiest, most joyous view of things. The poet makes the whole realm of nature express his thought and feeling. The whole universe becomes one vast chorus of living things. The Bible landscape needs no dryads to people its woodlands, no oreads to skip over its mountains, no naiads to give mirth to its waters or music to its streams. A higher animation fills them; for every chiming brook and fluttering spray, every thunder-tone and bird-note, every zephyr and every blessed sound is a note in God's anthem.

But the most characteristic feature of Bible poetry is its intense theism. Job, the great epic, presents not to us the deeds of a great hero, but shows us a suffering hero in agony, wondering at and studying out God's way in the world. The lyrics, the odes, the anthems are, with few exceptions, not love songs, not warrior songs, but songs of praise to God, God the Father, God the everlasting King. To the poet Jehovah is the maker and preserver of all things. He shines in the firmament; he rides on the thunderstorm, he clothes the lilies; he feeds the ravens and the young lions, and the cattle on a thousand hills; he gives rain and fruitful seasons; he is the everlasting shield, the comfort and joy of Israel.

The most general law of poetic form is embodied in the principles of rhythm. We of the western countries are accustomed to rhythm which is almost purely syllabic. Of syllabic rhythm there are two sorts, the rhythm

of accent and the rhythm of quantity. The first prevails in the modern tongues, the latter regulates ancient poetry. That is, in English, for example, we measure the rhythm by a regular recurring stress of syllables, as, "Flow gently, sweet Afton, amóng thy green bráes; Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise."

In Latin and Greek poetry rhythm is shown by giving more time to regularly recurring syllables. Innumerable attempts to find in Hebrew poetry one or the other of these forms of rhythm have been unsuccessful. And yet this poetry has a rhythm of its own, the measured rise and fall of feeling and utterance. This sort of rhythm with parallelism of thought and phrase are the plainest characteristics of Hebrew poetry. The ultimate unit consists of two lines or members embodying two answering thoughts. The most common forms of parallelism are, the synonymous, the antithetic, and the synthetic. In the first kind of parallelism the second line enforces the thought of the first by repeating it in a slightly varied form; as,

"Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon;

And thou, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon."

In the antithetic form the second line emphasizes the first by presenting a contrasted thought; as,

"A wise son maketh a glad father,

But a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked shall perish.”

In the synthetic form the second line supplements the first by adding a new thought; as,

"Answer not a fool according to his folly,
Lest thou also be like him.

As a bird that wandereth from her nest,
So is a man that wandereth from his place."

The body of poetry in the Old Testament is considerable. It embraces a great variety of scattered poems and fragments, and five complete books, Job, the Psalms,

Proverbs, the Song of Songs, and the Book of Lamentations.

The scattered poems and fragments are lyric in form and seem to be quotations from older books of lyric poetry. They include such interesting poems as the sword-song of Lamech, the song of the well, Deborah's song, the predictions of Balaam, the blessings of Jacob, the song of Moses at the Red Sea, and the dirge of David over Saul and Jonathan. The oldest specimen of lyric poetry is the song of Lamech to his two wives, found in the fourth chapter of Genesis. It is called the swordsong because it is supposed to celebrate the invention of weapons of iron and brass by Tubal-Cain, the son of Lamech. The song of Moses at the Red Sea, sung in honor of the overthrow of Pharoah's host, is great in its simplicity and sublimity. It has been counted the oldest specimen of the patriotic ode. The elegy of David on the death of Saul and Jonathan, found in the first chapter of Second Samuel is full of strength, pathos, grief, and tenderness.

The greater poems of the Bible named above make a remarkable body of poetry. The Book of Job is the greatest work of Hebrew literature and one of the greatest poems of the world's literature. The Song of Songs is a love song with a wholesome lesson of purity and fidelity. The Psalms are lyrics of devotion, a book of one hundred and fifty hymns divided into five parts or books. Among these psalms are many that will always hold their place among the great poems of the world. There are further studies of these three books in other chapters of this volume.

The Book of Proverbs is a book of maxims and precepts which has no equal anywhere in literature. There are among them maxims which outshine the best ethical precepts of the sages of Greece, or Rome or Egypt or India or China. The Book of Lamentations consists of five poems, each chapter being a complete poem. The first four are in the Hebrew elegiac meter and are alphabetic acrostics. The whole five lament the fall of Jerusalem in varied imagery, most of which is graphic and moving.

DAVID'S LAMENT

David's lament over the death of Saul and Jonathan is a beautiful elegy. The appeal to the imagination is definite, vivid, and clear, and the images are all simple and striking. The feeling expressed is simple, natural, and strong. The poem is a lyric of deep and unaffected grief, a spontaneous outburst from a great heart burdened with sorrow for the loss of a most noble and unselfish friend, and for the death of one who has done the poet grievous wrong, but who is nevertheless the Lord's anointed.

The first stanza of the poem is a cry of grief for the disastrous defeat of the armies of Israel:

"Thy glory, O Israel,

Is slain upon thy high places!

How are the mighty fallen!"

The second stanza expresses shame at the thought that the Philistines may know of the defeat of the Israelites and exult in their humiliation :

"Tell it not in Gath,

Publish it not in the streets of Askelon;

Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice,

Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph."

The mountains, after the classic manner, are reproached for their part in the tragedy:

"Ye mountains of Gilboa,

Let there be no dew nor rain upon you,

Neither fields of offerings;

For there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away,
The shield of Saul as if he had not been anointed with oil."

High praise for the valor and prowess of Saul and Jonathan:

"From the blood of the slain,

From the fat of the mighty,

The bow of Jonathan turned not back,

And the sword of Saul returned not empty."

The two dauntless warriors had gentle and engaging qualities, and a most intrepid spirit: