r, the fact that poems, such as we now deal with, were not composed
in writing, but were sung or chanted is another proof of the possibility
that the irregularities in their metre are original. In the songs of the
peasants of Palestine at the present day the lines vary as much as from
two to five accents, and within the same metrical form from three to four;
lines with three accents as written will, when sung to music, be stressed
with four, or with four as written will be stressed with five in order to
suit the melody.(43)

Nor are such irregularities confined to Eastern or primitive poetry. In
the later blank verse of Shakespeare, broken lines and redundant syllables
are numerous, but under his hand they become things of beauty, and "the
irregularity is the foundation of the larger and nobler rule." To quote
the historian of English prosody--"These are quite deliberate indulgences
in excess or defect, over or under a regular norm, which is so pervading
and so thoroughly marked that it carries them off on its wings."(44) Heine
in his unrhymed "Nordseebilder," has many irregular lines--irregularities
suitable to the variety of the subjects of his verse.

Again, in relevance to the mixture of poetry with prose in the prophetic
parts of the Book of Jeremiah, it is just to note that the early
pre-Islamic rhapsodists of Arabia used prose narratives to illustrate the
subjects of their chants; that many later works in Arabic literature are
medleys of prose and verse; that in particular the prose of the "Arabian
Nights" frequently breaks into metre; while the singing women of Mecca
"often put metre aside and employ the easier form of rhymed prose"(45) the
"Saj" as it is called.

If I may offer a somewhat rough illustration, the works of some Eastern
poets are like canoe voyages in Canada, in which the canoe now glides down
a stream and is again carried overland by what are called portages to
other streams or other branches of the same stream. Similarly these works
have their clear streams of poetry, but every now and again their portages
of prose. I may say at once that we shall find this true also of the Book
of Jeremiah.

All these phenomena, both of Eastern and of Western poetry, justify us in
regarding with scepticism recent attempts whether to eliminate--by purely
arbitrary omissions and additions, not founded on the evidence of the
Manuscripts and Versions--the irregularities in the metrical portions of
the Book of Je