42 Writing of the early German lyric, Dr. John Lees says in his volume on “The German Lyric” (London, Dent & Sons, 1914): “In regard to the length of the lines, their number, and the arrangement of the rhymes, the poet has absolute freedom in all three classes;” and again of the Volkslied “there is no mechanical counting of syllables; the variation in the number of accented and unaccented syllables is the secret of the verse.” And he quotes from Herder on the Volkslieder: “songs of the people ... songs which often do not scan and are badly rhymed.” 43 Dalman, “Palästinischer Diwan.” 44 Saintsbury, “History of English Prosody,” vol. ii. 53, 54. 45 Snouck Hurgronje, “Mekka,” vol. ii. 62. 46 “Kurzer Hand-Commentar,” 1901; and “Das Buch Jeremia,” a translation, 1903. 47 “Das Buch Jeremia,” 1905, p. xlvi. 48 E.g. Sievers, “Metrische Studien,” in the “Transactions of Saxon Society of the Sciences,” vol. xxi (which relies too much on the Massoretic or Canonical text); Erbt, “Jeremia u. seine Zeit,” p. 298; Giesebrecht, “Jeremia’s Metrik,” iii. ff.; Karl Budde’s relevant pages in his “Geschichte der althebräischen Litteratur,” 1906 reached me after I had expressed the views I have given above. They agree in the main with these views. 49 Certainly the evidence of both the Hebrew text and the Versions are against it, and the sense supports the text. More than once when sharp questions or challenges are thrown out, we have very appropriately two parallel lines of _two_ accents each instead of the usual Qînah couplet of _three_ and _two_: e.g. ii. 14 and iii. 5. See below, pp. 46 ff. Compare the variety of metres, which Schiller employs to such good effect in his “Song of the Bell”—a variety in beautiful harmony with that of the different aspects of life on which he touches; and see above, p. 36, on the irregularity of metre in Heine’s _Nordseebilder_. 50 Ch. xxix. _ 51 Op. cit._, p. xii. 52 Chs. i, xi and xxxi. 53 “It is an understatement of the case to say that the folk-song has been a source of inspiration. In the very greatest lyricists we simply find the folk-song in a new shape: it has become more polished and artistic, and it has been made the instrument of personal lyrical utterance.”—John Lees, M.A., D.Litt., “The German Lyric” (London, etc., Dent & Sons, 1914).