In Semitic poetry or rhetoric, in so far as we may speak of it, the “responsion” has hitherto been an unknown quantity; but we are familiar with it in classical literature, the best examples being the choruses of the Greek dramas. The strophe and antistrophe correspond in metre, in form, and in the division of the periods; they frequently correspond in substance also; and this correspondence is often marked by _verbal consonance or assonance_. This peculiarity, which seems to be of infrequent occurrence and trifling importance in Greek literature, has been recognised and named by the exact observation and penetrative criticism of classical philology; in Semitic poetry, where the responsion, combined with the strophic structure, to which it serves as the element of crystallisation, must be regarded as of the very essence of the poem or discourse, it has neither been explained nor named. AN EXAMPLE FROM AMOS I will take an example of the responsion from Amos, the first prophet who cast his discourses into literary form, Chaps. vii.-viii. 1) Thus the Lord God shewed me: And, behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up after the latter growth; And, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. 2) And it came to pass that when they made an end _of eating_ the grass of the land, Then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee: How shall Jacob stand? for he is small. 3) The Lord repented concerning this: It shall not be, saith the Lord. 4) Thus the Lord God shewed me: And, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire; And it devoured the great deep, And would have _devoured_ up the land. 5) Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee: How shall Jacob stand? for he is small. 6) The Lord repented concerning this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord God. 7) Thus he (the Lord God) shewed me: And behold he stood beside a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. 8) And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then the Lord said, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel; I will not again pass them by any more: 9) And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. And I will _rise against_ the house of Jeroboam with _the sword_. 1) Thus the Lord God shewed me: And, behold, [there was] a basket of summer [ripe] fruit. 2) And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer [ripe] fruit. 3) Then said the Lord unto me, The end [ripeness] is come upon my people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day. The _dead bodies_ shall be many; in every place have they cast them forth: be silent.