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In spite of debatable issues, such as metre, we now know enough about classical Hebrew poetry to be able to understand how it was composed. This large-scale manual, rich in detail, exegesis and bibliography, provides guidelines for the analysis and appreciation of Hebrew verse. Topics include oral poetry, metre, parallelism and forms of the strophe and stanza. Sound patterns and imagery are also discussed. A lengthy chapter sets out a whole range of other poetic devices and the book closes with a set of worked examples of Hebrew poetry. Throughout, other ancient Semitic verse has been used for comparison and the principles of modern literary criticism have been applied. Zusammenfassung In spite of debatable issues, such as metre, we now know enough about classical Hebrew poetry to be able to understand how it was composed. This large-scale manual, rich in detail, exegesis and bibliography, provides guidelines for the analysis and appreciation of Hebrew verse. Foreword; 1. Introduction; scope and aims; stylistics and Hebrew poetry; 2. Poetic Texts in other Semitic Languages; introduction; Ugaritic poetry; Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) poetic material; 3. Analyzing Hebrew Poetry: Notes on Method; terminology; method; function in poetry; archaisms; dating; textual criticism; prose or poetry?; close: notes on theory; 4. The Hebrew Poet in Action; oral poetry; oral poetry: theory; techniques and characteristics of oral poetry; ancient Hebrew oral poetry; techniques and characteristics of oral poetry in Hebrew; epic poetry in Hebrew? 5. Metre; what is metre?; metre in ancient Semitic languages; the stress (accentual) theory of Hebrew metre; other theories: survey and critique; anacrusis; functions of metre; 6. Parallelism; introductory; gender-matched parallelism; parallel word-pairs; number parallelism; staircase parallelism; other types of parallelism; 7. Stanza and Strophe; the stanza; strophic patterns: introduction; the monocolon; the abc/b'c' couplet; the tricolon; strophic patterns: the quatrain; strophic patterns: the pentacolon; higher strophic units; acrostics and related patterns; 8. Verse-Patterns; introduction; chiasmus and chiastic patterns; the terrace pattern (anadiplosis and sorites); the pivot pattern; 9. Sound in Hebrew Poetry; general; assonance; alliteration; rhyme; Closing Comments; Indices; Supplementary Bibliography; Further Additions and Corrections ...
