Benjamin Harshav

This volume traces the history of Hebrew versification from biblical poetry, through ancient Hebrew liturgy, medieval poetry, poetry of the Haskalah, and finally modern Hebrew poetry. After the biblical period, all systems of versification demanded umerical precision, according to standards influenced by literatures of different languages, all of which rejected the freedom of rime characteristic of biblical literature. Barring the odd exception, post-biblical Hebrew poetry did not adopt the complex and free structures of sound and rhythm found in biblical poetry. However, poetry throughout history, unlike Hebrew prose, has been founded on generations of biblical language. This book provides a systematic historical survey of Hebrew poetic meter throughout the ages, including a comprehensive study of Hebrew rime over a span of 1;500 years. The book focuses on an historical analysis. Rime is treated as one of the forms of poetry.The book concludes with a study of the transition from Ashkenaz to Israeli, or ''Sefardic'' pronunciation, demonstrated in the poetry of Uri-Zvi Grinberg. This volume is an addition to Benjamin Harshav's rich body of work on the theory of Hebrew literature, published in Israel and abroad.