Hebrew poetry was Re: Insane Question

On Monday 27 January 2003 01:01 pm, Karapcik, Mike wrote:
>         Old Semitic poetry is often described as "step poetry". In this,
> one phrase or idea is repeated regularly and expanded upon each time.
        The basic unit of the (Biblical) Hebrew poem is the colon (plural cola).
There is usually a balancing between combinations of cola, which is refered
to as parallelism. The most frequent combination is the bicolon (two cola in
parallelism; e.g. Ps. 1:6) with the tricolon (three cola in parallelism; e.g.
Ps. 100:1) and monocolon (one colon standing alone, e.g. Ps. 1:1a) occuring
at times as well.
        There are three common types of parallelism, the first, synonymous
parallelism, states that A is essentially parallel in meaning to B (Ps.
20:1). The second, antithetical parallelism, constrasts A and B (Ps. 20:7).
The third, synthetic parallelism, is more of a catch-all category, in that
the relationship between A and B is much looser, which include:
(1) a statement or reason (B gives reason for A, often connected by "because"
or "for")
(2) statement/question (A or B is a question, e.g. Ps. 6:5, 119:9)
(3) statement/refrain (refrain B s repeated throught the psalm section)
(4) comparison (A is a simile, withe B expressing the reality of the
comparison, e.g. Ps. 103:13)
(5) progression (B extends or develops the thought found in A, e.g. Is. 40:9,
Ps. 1:3)
(6) specification or explanation (B explains or makes the thought in A more
specific, e.g. Ps. 18:24, Ps. 72:9)
(7) statement/result (B provides the result or purpose of A, often connected
by "to" or "that").
        I often wish that modern English poetry would find its voice again. Robert
Frost said something to the effect that "writing free verse is like playing
tennis without the net." I tend to agree with him; I feel that there needs to
be some sort of conscious rules at work, even if it isn't rhyme (which
nowadays seems passe or something). For some reason, I have the instinct that
tells me that if poetry isn't hard to write, if the poet doesn't sweat and
struggle at least a little bit with the craft, then it really isn't poetry,
but prose with weird linebreaks.
        ObConlang: Conlang poems that invent words specifically to rhyme or fit with
the meter or whatever is cheating in my opinion. :)
        :Peter

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