The Quatrain in Isaianic Poetry -- By: John E. Worgul

Journal: Grace Theological Journal
Volume: GTJ 11:2 (Fall 1990)
Article: The Quatrain in Isaianic Poetry
Author: John E. Worgul


The Quatrain in Isaianic Poetry1

John E. Worgul

Isaiah was a master of Hebrew poetry as well as a grand theologian. He was fond of integrating couplets into various four-lined structures (i.e., quatrains) that fall into three basic categories. This integration was often achieved by sophisticated interplay on the grammatical, semantic, and rhetorical levels. What is of deeper significance, however, is that Isaiah used these poetic forms to enhance his theological meaning. By activating all levels of language, the prophet was able to impress Gods word upon his hearers in compact, four-lined structures that would otherwise take many lines of prose to communicate.

* * *

Although the pairing of lines by means of grammatical, semantic and rhetorical parallelism to form couplets is the basic feature of Isaianic poetry, the pairing of couplets to form quatrains is also a distinctive device used by Isaiah.2 In this article, we will differentiate and categorize these structures, but will also see how Isaiah uses them to communicate his message by artfully blending form with meaning.

Before we start with the analysis of the quatrains, some preliminary considerations are in order. Basic to the goal stated above is the position that a methodology of analyzing parallel lines must be able to account for both grammatical and semantic parallelism, and the rhetorical effect as well. It is our intention to avoid stressing one aspect of parallelism over another.3 The method employed here, which was

adapted from Stephen Geller’s Parallelism in Early Biblical Poetry (Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1979) is an attempt to account for parallelism on these levels.4 Central to the method is a device called a “schema,” which will be explained below.

The lines used in the analysis had to meet certain criteria.5 The first is that the lines analyzed should be regarded as Isaianic by most scholars.6 Secondly, the lines must be “highly parallelistic” as opposed to prose without any parallelistic features (e.g., 7:1–6, 10–17 and 8:14), or prose that contains parallelistic features, referred to here as “parallelistic prose” (e.g., 2:20,

You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
Click here to subscribe
visitor : : uid: ()