[Flaptekst]: Theories of biblical Hebrew verse are many and varied and fraught with dispute and difficulty, and the post-biblical commentator is confronted with any number of hurdles. In particular there is the problem of rhythm or metre. However one chooses to measure regularity in biblical verse, there is the difficulty that biblical poetry often diverges from any kind of strict metrical set or pattern. Taking biblical Hebrew verse to be an accentual system of versification, the present work surveys the major writers and their contributions, and treats of some technicalities of accentual versification, as well as parallelism. It argues that the shape of our thought needs to shift; that if we can keep the problems of biblical verse simple, we can give to them simple solutions. It suggests a cognitive approach to the accentual irregularities of biblical verse. It shows that such an approach can account without strain for the relationship between the structure of biblical verse - even when its accentual pattern runs irregular - and its perceived rhythmic effect. It gives a new shape to our understanding of Hebrew verse and how it is that we see its chief markers - parallelism, rhythmic patterning and terseness - to interact.
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