Appendix II: Types and Distributions of Parallelism in Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry

Abstract

This chapter describes two main schemas which may be used in the analysis of Ugaritic and Hebrew poems and suggests how the overlapping or overlaying of the two schemas may give various insights into the structure of a given poem. The first schema consists of the various types of parallelism which have been observed over the years, that is, repetitive, semantic, grammatical, and phonetic. The second schema is that of the physical distribution of these types of parallelism over a poetic work. The discussion of overlapping deals with how the various types of parallelism function in various degrees of proximity. The author certainly agrees with the kernel of Kugel's assessment of grammatical parallelism, that it was devised in the necessity of salvaging the principle of parallelism for lines where semantic similarities were lacking, but disagree totally with the negative tone of the words devise and salvage.Keywords: grammatical parallelism; Hebrew poetry; Kugel's assessment; physical distribution; Ugaritic poem