He also alternates paragraphs with
stichic accumulations of lines, which contributes to the poetry's general sense that density yields explosive results.
This arrangement conforms to neither of the two mise-en-page systems developed to aid in the liturgical performance of the Psalms: neither to the older per cola et commata arrangement of the Psalms, where each element of a grammatical period is given a new line, nor to the later
stichic verse arrangement, where each verse begins on a new line with a littera notabilior (43) Where these patterns divide the Psalms into a series of grammatical or metrical units suitable to chant, the Douce 320 Psalter arranges each Psalm as a distinct, self-contained unit of continuous prose.
It will be observed that some of the problems I identified above, of isolation among stanzas and lack of vital connections between them, are more or less solved by writing in the couplet, which is hardly roomy enough to merit the title "stanza." Indeed, couplets afford the opportunity to create some of the effects of
stichic poetry, that is, poetry built on the unit of the line.
I usually talk about this strategy in terms of "parallel codes": the syntactic and the
stichic, respectively.