Poetic
Principles
The dominating principle of both
Ugaritic and biblical poetry is the same, namely, that of balance or symmetry,
the famous parallelismus membrorum.
The Ugaritic texts are mainly in the 3+3 pattern, as would be expected in epic
poetry; the 2+2 sequence is also common and there are numerous instances of
mixed patterns, of 3+3 and 2+2. (Mitchell Dahood, Psalms I: 1-50:
Introduction, Translation, and Notes [AYB 16; New Haven: Yale University Press,
2008], xxiii)
