1. hebrew poetry is of two kinds, either lyric or gnomic, i. e. subjectively emotional or sententiously didactic, the formerbelonging to the active or stirring, and the latter to the reflective or quiet, periods of Hebrew history, and whether expressed in lyric or gnome rises in the conscience and terminates in action; for Hebrewthought needs to go no higher, since therein it finds and affirms God; and it seeks to go no farther, for therein it compasses all being, and requires no epic and no drama to work out its destiny. However individualistic in feature, as working through the conscience, it yet relates itself to the wholemoral world, and however it may express itself, it beats in accord with the pulse of eternity. The lyricexpression of the Hebrewtemper we find in the Psalms and the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and the gnomic in the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, while the book of Job, which is only dramatic in form, is partly lyric and partly dramatic.
Definitions of hebrew poetry
