Based on a series of case studies, this paper investigates aspects of the function of parallelism in Babylonian poetry. The focus is on the semantic interconnections created by the juxtaposition of passages sharing similar or contrasting linguistic features. Seen in this light, parallelism reveals itself as much more than the vector for stylistic creativity as which it has mostly been investigated in Assyriology, it is a crucial means for the construction of meaning. The operative principle behind this meaning being analogical reasoning, poetry in these aspects is revealed to draw on the same repertoire of notions that underlies other branches of Mesopotamian erudition, too – the paper explores in particular the comparable case of divination.