Hebrew Poetry

What ought one to expect when delving into Hebrew poetry?  How ought one to think about the distinctive features of Hebrew poetry to understand what it is doing?  David L. Peterson and Kent Harold Richards have written a brief and helpful book that answers these kinds of questions.  It's called Interpreting Hebrew Poetry. 

Here's a sample which gives you an idea of what's different about Hebrew poetry from, say, English poetry, and therefore gives the reader pointers for how to understand Hebrew poetry (p. 47):

Rythm in Hebrew poetry works in a way quite distinct from the way in which meter is often understood to function in the poetry of many other languages. . . . Rather than seeking or expecting the sort of uniformity that meter typically generates in poems written in other languages, one anticipates a delicate balance between regularity and variation.

In sum, Hebrew poetry possesses rhythm, not meter.  Such rhythm, often described in rhythmic patterns, is distinctive because it functions differently from meter.  As a result, one may read Hebrew poetry looking for both rhythmic regularity and variety, not metric predictability.