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”. However, there is a distinct difference between repetition and parallelism. 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 is shown by using "it was" to connect opposing ideas. Parallelism is the repetition of grammatical elements in a piece of writing to create a harmonious effect. Parallelism remains a popular technique in poetry, prose, and plays. 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. Many literature students find these two devices to be similar. 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. Dennis Bratcher. Parallelism in Psalms. Parallel structure is essential to accurate grammatical structure, as it improves coherence and consistency. This is essentially what parallelism in poetry is, but I have found that it goes much further than that – much further. Define parallelism in literature: The definition of parallelism in literature is the use of identical or equivalent syntactic constructions in corresponding clauses and phrases. [1] He has a way of being crisp and to the point, doesn’t he? Parallelism or parallel structure of sentences can often be observed in literature and poetry. Parallelism in Hebrew Writing. Parallelism in Literature. The main difference between repetition and parallelism is that repetition focuses more on the semantics whereas parallelism focuses more on syntax. What Is Parallelism in Writing? Last night, my oldest daughter helped reawaken that fascination. As we were […] I have always been fascinated by the parallelism which characterizes Hebrew poetry. 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. It lends a rhythm, a refinement to what is being written and helps avoid repetition. Parallelism impacts both the grammar of sentences as well as the larger presentation of ideas. For the ancient Hebrews, poetry was typically not based on rhyme, but on a concept known as parallelism. For example, on reading: Repetition and Parallelism can be a tricky area in literature. 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. 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). 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. It is similar to parallelism . 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. This content on parallelism and poetry in the Bible is from the Believer’s Bible Commentary.. 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