A poem what I wrote about English and Hebrew poems

I am currently preaching a little sermon series off and on in the Psalms and I am thinking of using the following at a forthcoming family service to illustrate a difference between English and Biblical Hebrew poetry and hopefully in the process to help people to read the Psalms. Probably there are rather better examples out there doing the same thing. Improvements or alternatives are of course welcome.

Update: over lunch today the kids revealed that the Reader had suggested to them another technique which began with a c or possibly a kicking k, which turned out to be a chiasm. So the very cleverest readers might be able to spot one of them too, though maybe sometimes they are imagined and made up!

A Poem what I wrote about English and Biblical Poems



Rhyme is a technique English poems often use.

It is a sign of our versing muse.



But Biblical Psalms often use parallelism.

They might repeat ideas.

They might say the same thing twice.

Or something similar - maybe adding something.

Or not - it might be a contrast.



Also,

Biblical poetry

Can be acrostic.

Do you see?

Scholars love to spot chiasms in the Bible.

Here one element matches another later on.

The middle term might be stressed.

And something corresponds to something earlier.

Some experts identify these chiasms often in Scripture.