Dorsey (The Literary Structure of the Old Testament, 1999, p 251) suggests a 13 unit chiasmus structure for Lamentations. He offers detailed comparisons between sections.
A. she – Zion – is desolate and devastated (1:1-11)
B. I – Zion – was betrayed and defeated: there is none to help or comfort me (1:12-22)
C. he – Yahweh – has caused this in his anger (2:1-8)
D. they – princes, maidens, nurselings, children, mothers – suffer (2:9-12)
E. you – Zion – should cry out to God (2:13-22)
F. he – Yahweh – has afflicted me (3:1-20)
G. Yahweh’s great love (3:21-32)
F’. he – Yahweh – afflicts humans (3:33-39)
E’. you – Yahweh – to you I cry out (3:40-66)
D’. they – princes, maidens, nurselings, children, mothers – suffer (4:1-10)
C’. he – Yahweh – has caused this in his anger (4:11-16)
B’. we – the people of Zion – were betrayed and defeated (4:17-22)
A’. we – the people of Zion – are desolate and devastated (5:1-22)
I have been studying the chiastic structure of Lamentations and have concluded the above structure by Dorsey seems totally correct.. But Lamentations has another overlapping chiastic structure at the same time, namely the 5 chapters themselves form an a, b, c, b’, and a’ pattern as well.
a Jerusalem/Judah Dissolution Chapter 1 acrostic 22 verses
b God’s Judgment chapter 2 acrostic 22 verses
c Jeremiah’s Response chapter 3 acrostic 66 verses with 3 verses per Hebrew letter
b’ The Lord’s Anger chapter4 acrostic 22 verses
a’ Remnants Response chapter 5 not acrostic 22 verses
Acrostic means each verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew language (in ascending order). The chiastic center is emphasized by 3 verses per Hebrew letter. The above Dorsey chiastic structure fails to note the perfectly match acrostic nature of Lamentations (each layer has 22 verses except for center with 66 verses (still acrostic_.
It is not common for a Biblical book to have two overlapping chiastic structures . Hebrews (New Testament) is another example of this (not a subject of this comment). There is plenty of other internet sources supporting each chiastic structure, but none have caught both overlapping chiasms exist at the same time.
Last we note the book of Jeremiah is likewise filled with 5-layer chiastic structures, another reason to support Lamentations having 5 chiastic layers. (Probably Jeremiah wrote both).