The following is taken from:
Harm W.M. van Grol, “Classical Hebrew Metrics and Zephaniah
2–3,” in The Structural Analysis of Biblical and Canaanite Poetry, ed.
Willem van der Meer and Johannes C. de Moor Johannes (Journal for the Study of
the Old Testament Supplement Series 74; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1988), 202–204.
I have found a theoretical basis in generative metrics.
Generative metrics reveals, in the iambic pentameter (stress-syllable metre),
that metrical deviations are often simply variations which conform to strict
rules, and that the analysis can not be focused upon the deviating unit (the
foot) but must focus on the next textual level (the verse-line). Similarly, I
view the deviating unit (the verse-line) in light of the next textual level
(the strophe), and I describe the extremely variable rhythmic patterns as
regular realizations of a number of abstract metrical themes.
The provisional results of my studies of rhythm are
formulated in a number of metrical rules, which I summarize here:
(1) Classical Hebrew poetry has four metrical themes: 2+2, 3+2,
and 4+4 (metrical units).
(2) The strophe contains line patterns which are all realizations of the same
metrical theme.
(3) The following realizations of the metrical themes are distinguished:
|
(a) The base pattern |
|
e.g. 3+3 for theme 3+3 |
|
(b) the tricolic pattern |
|
e.g. 3+3+3 for theme 3+3 |
|
(c) and (limited to the first
and/or last line of the strophe!) |
|
|
|
|
the hypercatalectic pattern |
e.g. 4+4 for theme 3+3 |
|
|
the brachycatelectic pattern |
e.g. 3+2 for theme 3+3 |
|
|
the hypercatalectic combination
pattern |
e.g. 3+2+3 for theme 3+2 |
|
|
the brachycatelectic
combination pattern |
e.g. 3+3+2 for theme 3+3 |
|
(d) in addition to these stylistic
pattern |
|
e.g. 2+2+2 for theme 3+3 |
(4) The regularity on a level higher than the strophe can be
noticed in repetitive patterns of metrical themes and/or strophe forms.
These metrical rules produce two types of strophes, pure
strophes and marked strophes. Pure strophes consist of a base pattern and/or a
tricolic pattern. Marked strophes contain a hyper-or brachycatalectic marking.
Some marked strophes are susceptible to multiple interpretations. A 3+3, 3+2
strophe can belong to a 3+3 metrical theme (with a brachycatalectic ending) or
to a 3+2 metrical theme (with a hypercatalectic beginning). In such a situation
only the context can be determinative.