Bible poetry’s greatest technique is not to rhyme sounds, as in much English poetry, but to “rhyme” ideas—that is, to put two or more lines together that somehow match each other. Parallelism or parallel structure of sentences can often be observed in literature and poetry. The term “parallelism” comes from an eighteenth-century scholar of Hebrew poetry, while the Russian literary theorist Roman Jakobson pioneered the study of parallelism in non-religious texts. This content on parallelism and poetry in the Bible is from the Believer’s Bible Commentary.. WHAT IS PARALLELISM? The opening paragraph of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities is perhaps the best-known example of parallelism in literature. For the ancient Hebrews, poetry was typically not based on rhyme, but on a concept known as parallelism. Last night, my oldest daughter helped reawaken that fascination. Many literature students find these two devices to be similar. Parallel structure is a stylistic device, and a grammatical construction having two or more clauses, phrases or words, with similar grammatical form and length. Parallelism is matching of grammatical structures in a sentence. Parallelism is shown by using "it was" to connect opposing ideas. Parallel structure is essential to accurate grammatical structure, as it improves coherence and consistency. Repetition and Parallelism can be a tricky area in literature. As we were […] Parallelism impacts both the grammar of sentences as well as the larger presentation of ideas. Parallelism, in rhetoric, component of literary style in both prose and poetry, in which coordinate ideas are arranged in phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that balance one element with another of equal importance and similar wording.The repetition of sounds, meanings, and structures serves to order, emphasize, and point out relations. Parallelism—the repetition of grammatical elements—is key in good writing and effective public speaking. Define parallelism in literature: The definition of parallelism in literature is the use of identical or equivalent syntactic constructions in corresponding clauses and phrases. The nature of Hebrew poetry was recognized in the 12th century by Ibn Ezra and by Kimchi in the 13th century, but it was more clearly defined by Robert Lowth in 1753 (Unger 1951, p. 282). In parallel structure, sentences have a series of phrases or clauses, which start and end in almost a similar fashion, by keeping the rhythm of the lines. Dennis Bratcher. In his book Reflections on the Psalms, C. S. Lewis gives a quick definition of parallelism as: “the practice of saying twice the same thing in different words”. Parallelism is the repetition of grammatical elements in a piece of writing to create a harmonious effect. A common literary feature of Hebrew poetry in the Old Testament is called parallelism, in which the words of two or more lines of text are directly related in some way. Parallelism remains a popular technique in poetry, prose, and plays. This is essentially what parallelism in poetry is, but I have found that it goes much further than that – much further. It is similar to parallelism . I remember taking a seminary course in which I learned about the various kinds of Hebrew parallelism and realized that it is far more than just saying the same thing twice. Parallelism in Hebrew Writing. It lends a rhythm, a refinement to what is being written and helps avoid repetition. Parallelism in Literature. [1] He has a way of being crisp and to the point, doesn’t he? Parallelism. What Is Parallelism in Writing? However, there is a distinct difference between repetition and parallelism. For example, on reading: I have always been fascinated by the parallelism which characterizes Hebrew poetry. 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