In Russian poetics, the syllabo-tonic system of versification is adopted, introduced with the light hand of Lomonosov and Trediakovsky. In short: in the tonic system, the number of stresses in a line is important, and the syllabic suggests the presence of rhyme.
Before we learn how to determine the poetic size, let's brush up on the meaning of some terms. The size depends on the order of alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Groups of syllables repeated in one line are stops. They determine the size of the verse. But the number of feet in one verse (line) will indicate whether this is a one-foot size, two-foot, three-foot, etc.
Consider the most popular sizes. The size of the foot depends on how many syllables it consists of. For example, if there is one syllable, then the foot is also one-syllable, and if there are five, then it is five-syllable, respectively. Most often in literature (poetry) one can find two-syllable (trochee and iambic) and three-syllable (dactyl, amphibrach, anapest) feet.
Disyllabic. There are two syllables and two sizes.
Chorey- foot with stress on the first syllable. A synonym that is sometimes used when calling this type of foot is the word trocheus. AT yambe stress on the second syllable. If the word is long, then secondary stress is also implied in it.
The origin of the term is interesting. According to one version - on behalf of the servant of the goddess Demeter, Yambi, who sang cheerful songs built on the iambic meter. In ancient Greece, iambic was originally composed only of satirical poems.
How to distinguish iambic from chorea? Difficulties are easily avoided if the terms are arranged alphabetically. The first is “trochee”, respectively, and its stress is on the first syllable.
In the picture on the right, you see a schematic representation of sizes using numbers and signs, and under this text you can read examples of poems with such sizes from fiction. The choreic meter is well shown to us by A.S. Pushkin "Demons", and we can find iambic feet at the very beginning of the famous novel in verse "Eugene Onegin".
Trisyllabic meter. There are three syllables in the foot, and the same number of sizes.
Dactyl- a foot in which the first syllable is stressed, then two unstressed. The name comes from the Greek word dáktylos, which means "finger" in translation. The dactylic foot has three syllables and the toe has three phalanges. The invention of the dactyl is attributed to the god Dionysus.
Amphibrachius(Greek amphibrachys - short on both sides) - a foot of three syllables, where the stress is placed in the middle. Anapaest(Greek anapaistos, i.e. reflected back) - foot with stress on the last syllable. Scheme: 001/001
It is easy to remember the features of three-syllable sizes by the sentence: "The LADY locks the gate in the evening." In the abbreviation DAMA, the names of the sizes are encrypted in order: DAktil, AMfibrachiy, Anapaest. And the words “he locks the gate in the evening” illustrate patterns of syllable alternation.
For examples from fiction for three-syllable sizes, see the picture that you see under this text. Dactyl and amphibrach illustrate the works of M.Yu. Lermontov "Clouds" and "In the wild north stands alone." The anapestic foot can be found in A. Blok's poem "To the Muse":
Polysyllabic meters are formed by merging two or three simple meters (just like in music). Of the variety of complex types of feet, the peon and pentone are the most popular.
peon consists of a single stressed and three unstressed syllables. Depending on what the stressed syllable is, there are I, II, III and IV peonies. In Russian versification, the history of the peon is associated with the Symbolists, who proposed it as a four-syllable meter.
Penton- a foot of five syllables. There are five types of them: “Penton No.. (in the order of the stressed syllable). A.V. Koltsov, and “Penton No. 3” is called “Koltsovskiy”. As an example of a “peon”, we can cite the poem “Moments” by R. Rozhdestvensky, and we will illustrate the “penton” with the poems of A. Koltsov “Don’t make noise, rye”:
Knowing what poetic meters are is necessary not only for school analyzes of literature, but for their correct choice when composing your own poems. The melodiousness of the narration depends on the size. There is only one rule here: the more unstressed syllables in the foot, the smoother the verse sounds. It is not good to paint a fast-paced battle, for example, with a penton: the picture will turn out as in slow motion.
I suggest you get some rest. Watch a video with beautiful music and write in the comments what you can call an unusual musical instrument that you see there?
Lesson Objectives:
- the formation of knowledge of poetic meters, about the role of two-syllable and three-syllable meters in a poetic text;
- development of the ability to hear the rhythm and imagine poetic images;
- fostering love for the native language, a sense of pride in its richness and diversity.
DURING THE CLASSES
I. OMGMOMENT.
II. EXPLANATION OF THE NEW MATERIAL.
1. The word of the teacher.
The meter helps the poet to create a rhythmic poetic work.
Russian poetry, as a rule (but not exclusively!) appears to us in the form of a syllabic-tonic versification based on an ordered arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in a verse: stressed syllables are located (exclusively or predominantly) in strong places, unstressed syllables in weak places.
The minimum structural unit of a verse is the foot. A foot is a sequence of one or more unstressed (weak) and one stressed (strong) syllable, alternating in a certain order.
The foot is two-syllable, when two syllables are constantly repeated - stressed and unstressed, or vice versa; and three-syllable, when one stressed and two unstressed syllables are repeated.
(We will denote the stressed syllable like this: _/, and the unstressed syllable like this: _, then two-syllable feet can be depicted as follows: trochee _/ _, iambic _ _/; and three-syllable like this:
dactyl _/ _ _ , amphibrach _ _/ _, anapaest _ _ _/)
He could not iambic from a chorea,
No matter how we fought, to distinguish: -
Is it really so difficult to distinguish iambic from chorea?
Of course not. Quite simply, neither Eugene nor his teachers knew one small formula-scheme, just one simple word. You will easily remember it and will be able not only to distinguish iambic from trochaic, but even amphibrach from dactyl or anapaest.
That's it! So, remember one word HYADAMAN
Yes, it's a tricky word!
"And what to do with this word?" - you ask.
And let's guys build a pyramid out of this word.
We will just start building it somewhat unusually, not from the foundation, but from the roof.
XY
Daman
2. Determination of poetic sizes
A. DOUBLE DIMENSIONS
Let's remember
Wind, wind, you are mighty
YOU are chasing flocks of clouds
Oh oh oh! It looks like it's going to rain now. Gotta build a roof X - CHOREI)
CHOREI- (Greek choreios, lit. dancing), trochey (Greek trochaios, lit. running), poetic meter with strong (shock) places on odd syllables of the verse.
To make it easier to remember the chorea rhythm, we suggest substituting any two-syllable word with stress on the first syllable into the rhythmic line, for example, water(After all, clouds carry rain and water). The guys from the school poetry club "Green Lamp" and I came up with small poems that help restore and remember the rhythms of poetic meters. Here's what we got about the chorea:
Chorea _/_ (WATER)
The chorus sings:
One - hit, two - misses, -
Third, fifth syllable - stressed,
Every pair is unbeatable.
To hear the rhythm of the chorea,
Repeat in your mind quickly:
"Water - water - water pour", -
It turns out a trochee.
All the lullabies are written in the trochee and, by the way, following Lermontov, all the poems in which there is a night landscape .
Here we have the first letter (X, which means trochee) - the first brick.
Let's remember "Eugene Onegin" again.
You are still dozing, lovely friend:
(A.S. Pushkin)_ _/_ _/_ _/ _ _/ _
_ _/_ _/_ _/ _ _/ _
YaMB - (Greek iambos), poetic meter with strong places on even syllables of the verse ("My uncle of the most honest rules ...". The most common of the meters of Russian syllabic-tonic verse; the main sizes are 4-foot (lyric, epic), 6-foot (poems and dramas of the 18th century), 5-foot (lyrics and dramas of the 19th-20th centuries), free multi-footed (fable of the 18th-19th centuries, comedy of the 19th century).
To make it easier to remember the chorea rhythm, we suggest substituting any two-syllable word with stress on the second syllable into the rhythmic line, for example, water.
Poetry lovers from the school club "Green Lamp" came up with such a hint poem that helps to better remember the iambic features.
Yamb _ _/ (water)
Poets in Russia with iambs
They prefer to write.
There is one sign in the foot:
Where there is an even syllable - there is "hit".
Will help us to identify iambic
Repeat: "WATER - WATER - WATER,
WATER - WATER - WATER - WATER", -
Sounds so iambic rhythm always.
Yamb is an energetic, often solemn sound of a verse .
Here we have the second letter (I, which means iambic)- the second brick.
B. TRIPLE DIMENSIONS
So, the roof is there, now it's time to build walls from the cold. We will build the walls in our pyramid house from larger, three-syllable feet.
Three-syllable meters are more flexible intonation, close to colloquial speech (this is probably why Lermontov loved them and preferred Nekrasov).
1. DACTYLE
Clouds of heaven, eternal wanderers!
Steppe azure, pearl chain
You rush, as if like me, exiles:
(M.Yu. Lermontov)_/_ _ _/_ _ _/_ _ _/_ _
_/_ _ _/_ _ _/_ _ _/_ _
_/_ _ _/_ _ _/_ _ _/_ _
The first brick at the base of our pyramid ( D - dactyl)
DAKTYL - (Greek daktylos, lit. finger), poetic meter, formed by 3-complex feet with a strong place on the 1st syllable of the foot ("Dug a deep hole with a spade", I.S. Nikitin). The most common sizes of the Russian syllabo-tonic dactyl. Dactyl 2-foot (in the 18th century), 4- and 3-foot (in the 19th-20th centuries).
To make it easier to remember the rhythm of the dactyl, we suggest substituting any three-syllable word with the stress on the second syllable into the rhythmic line, for example, gold.
But what a poetic definition of dactyl our poetry lovers came up with and wrote it with dactyl:
Dactyl _/ _ _ (gold)
Dactyl - he is the first size of the three-syllable,
You can count the strokes with your finger.
First, fourth, seventh and tenth
Stressed syllables in a winged line.Key for dactyl word cast
Like a key, Tartila it is golden.
"Gold is gold" - you repeat
And among the verses you will always recognize the dactyl.
2) AMPHIBRACHY
The next brick in our pyramid is amphibrach (Am):
It's lonely in the wild north
ON THE BARE TOP PINE
And slumbers, swaying, and pouring snow
Dressed like a riza, she is.
(M.Yu. Lermontov)_ _/_ _ _/_ _ _/_ _ _/_
_ _/_ _ _/_ _ _/_ _ _/
_ _/_ _ _/_ _ _/_ _ _/_
_ _/_ _ _/_ _ _/_ _ _/
AMPHIBRACHY - (Greek amphibrachys, letters short on both sides), poetic meter, formed by 3-complex stops with a strong place on the 2nd syllable ("Not the wind rages over the forest"). The most commonly used sizes of the Russian syllabic-tonic amphibrach are 4-foot (from the beginning of the 19th century) and 3-foot (from the middle of the 19th century).
To find out this size, we compose the rhythm of a poetic line from a three-syllable word with an accent on the middle syllable. Let it also be metal, but no longer precious - iron. Members of our poetry club described amphibrachs as follows:
Amphibrach _ _/ _ (iron)
The second of the three-syllable size is the amphibrach.
Here in each foot the stress is in the center.
Stressed syllables in the ring of unstressed
Sheltered from heat, rain and wind.
The secret of amphibrach is in the word "iron",
It is no less useful to us than gold.
"Iron - iron", - repeat in a row,
And you can easily recognize amphibrachs.
3. ANAPEST
And finally, the last wall, the last brick. This is Anapaest (An).
There are in the melodies of your innermost
Fatal news about death.
There is a curse of the covenants of the sacred,
There is a desecration of happiness.
(A. Blok)_ _ _/ _ _ _/ _ _ _/ _
_ _ _/ _ _ _/ _ _ _/
_ _ _/ _ _ _/ _ _ _/ _
_ _ _/ _ _ _/ _ _ _/
ANAPEST - (from the Greek anapaistos reversed to dactyl, literally reflected back), a poetic meter formed by 3-complex feet (see foot), with a strong place on the 3rd syllable; on the initial syllable of the line there is often a super-scheme stress ("There, in the howling cold of the night", A.A. Blok). The most commonly used sizes of the Russian syllabic-tonic anapaest are 4- and 3-foot (since the middle of the 19th century).
This size will help us remember the word silver.
Anapaest _ _ _/ (silver)
And the anapaest is the last three-syllable size,
And here every third syllable is stressed in the foot,
He is like a mirror, he is a dactyl on the contrary,
He usually sings long songs.
The rhythm of the anapaest helps us to learn
Bells gentle silver ringing.
"Silver - silver" - you have to repeat,
To hear the anapaest behind that silver.
B. CONCLUSION. PYRAMID HOUSE
XY
Daman
Now let's see why we built this whole pyramid.
We have "two floors". The top is two syllables, one of which is stressed. The lower one is three syllables, where the stress also falls on one. In literary criticism, these "floors" are called feet.
X comes first in a foot of two syllables. So, if out of two syllables the stress falls on the first, then this is precisely the trochee:
A cloud covers the sky with darkness ..
I'm second. The stress falls on the second syllable, therefore, it is iambic:
Frost and sun, a wonderful day!
D means that in a foot of three syllables, the stress falls on the first syllable and this measure is called dactyl:
Heavenly clouds, eternal wanderers...
Am stands second, therefore, a foot with an accent on the second syllable is called amphibrach:
It's lonely in the wild north
An is the last in this row. So, if the emphasis falls on it, it is an anapaest.
There are in the melodies of your innermost ...
So, guys, now you know what a poetic size is and how to determine it. You have seen how important the size of a poem is in creating its mood. Now you can feel like real poets! Now you can compete with Eugene Onegin, who, as you remember, tried to compose poetry, but soon gave up this occupation. Maybe he didn’t succeed precisely because “he couldn’t distinguish an iambic from a chorea, no matter how hard we fought, to distinguish”?
III. FIXING
TEST using punched cards. Punched cards for 8 questions with 4 possible answers.
Task: put a cross in the box corresponding to the answer option:
a - trochee; b - iambic; c - dactyl; d - amphibrachs; if the answer is "anapaest" - all the boxes in the line remain empty.
Clouds are rushing, clouds are winding;
Invisible moon
Illuminates the flying snow;
The sky is cloudy, the night is cloudy. (trochaic)The last cloud of the scattered storm!
Alone you rush through the clear azure,
You alone cast a sad shadow,
You alone grieve the jubilant day. (Amphibrachius)Covers a golden leaf
Wet ground in the forest...
I boldly trample with my foot
Spring forest beauty...
Cheeks burn with cold
I like to run in the forest,
Hear the branches crack
Rake the leaves with your feet! (Dactyl)Friend of my harsh days,
My decrepit dove
Alone in the wilderness of pine forests
For a long, long time you've been waiting for me. (yamb)Stands alone in the wild north
On the bare top of a pine tree,
And dozing, swaying, and loose snow
She is dressed like a robe. (Amphibrachius)
You, holy sun, burn!
How does this lamp turn pale
Before the clear dawn,
So false wisdom flickers and smolders
Before the sun of the immortal mind.
Long live the sun, long live the darkness! (Amphibrachius)
A lonely sail turns white
In the blue mist of the sea!
What is he looking for in a distant country?
What did he throw in his native land? (yamb)
On the blue waves of the ocean
Only the stars will shine in the sky
The lonely ship rushes
Rushing on all sails. (Amphibrachius)
(Commenting on answers.)
LITERATURE AND OTHER SOURCES
- Turyanskaya B.I., Kholodkova L.A., Vinogradova E.A., Komissarova E.V. Literature in the 6th grade. Lesson after lesson. - M.: "Russian Word", 2002, p.81.
- screen.ru/school/size/
The forms of poetic rhythm are varied. Russian versification is based on syllabic-tonic (syllable-stressed) system versification.
Syllabo-tonic versification is a way of organizing a poem in which stressed and unstressed syllables alternate in a certain order, unchanged for all lines of the poem. The rules of syllabic-tonic versification were developed by Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky (“A New and Brief Method for Composing Russian Poetry”, 1735) and (“Letter on the Rules of Russian Poetry”, 1739). By the middle of the 18th century, this way of organizing a poem became dominant in Russian poetry.
Under poetic size understand the rules for alternating unstressed and stressed syllables in a verse, in other words, the alternation of feet.
Foot - this is a sequence of one or more unstressed (weak) and one stressed (strong) syllable, alternating in a certain order. For classical sizes, the foot consists either of two syllables (trochee and iambic - two-syllable poetic meters), or of three (dactyl, amphibrach and anapaest - three-syllable poetic meters). The foot is the smallest structural unit of a verse. The number of feet in one poetic line is taken into account when determining the poetic size. The number of stops corresponds to the number of rhythmic stresses in one line.
In Russian versification, they distinguish five verses : trochee, iambic, dactyl, amphibrach and anapaest.
Chorey, or trochee(from Greek horeios - dance) - two-syllable size, where rhythmic stresses fall on odd syllables. Chorea foot schematically looks like this: | – (the sign “|” denotes the stressed syllable, and the sign “–“ is the unstressed one).
A storm covers the sky with mist,
Whirlwinds of snow twisting…
(A.S. Pushkin)
| – | – | – | –
| – | – | – |
In this case, we have an example of a 4-foot chorea. (It should be borne in mind that rhythmic stresses do not always coincide with ordinary verbal stress, and sometimes there can be two rhythmic stresses in a word - in the example given, the word “snowy” has two rhythmic stresses. An “extra” rhythmic stress is called pyrrhic).
Yamb(from the name of the ancient Greek musical instrument) - two-syllable size, where rhythmic stresses fall oneven syllables.
The iambic foot schematically looks like this: – |
My uncle has the most honest rules.
When I seriously fell ill ...
(A.S. Pushkin)
– | – | – | – | –
– | – | – | – |
In this case, we have an example of iambic 4-foot.
One of the heroes of the novel by Ilf and Petrov "The Golden Calf" - Vasisualy Lokhankin - communicated with those around him exclusively in iambic pentameter:
I have come to live with you forever.
Fire, fire brought me here.
(I. Ilf, E. Petrov)
– | – | – | – | – | –
– | – | – | – | – |
This is an example of iambic 5-foot.
Comedy "Woe from Wit" written diversified iambic, because the text of the work uses a different number of stops in iambic lines:
Be silent!
Terrible age! Don't know what to start!
All managed beyond their years.
And more than daughters, but good-natured people themselves.
We were given these languages!
(A.S. Griboyedov)
– |
– | – | – | – | – |
– | – | – | – | –
– | – | – | – | – | – |
– | – | – | – |
That's an example iambic polypod. In each of the lines from one to six stops.
Dactyl(from the Greek daktilos - finger) - a three-syllable poetic size, where rhythmic stresses fall on 1st, 4th, 7th, etc. syllables.
The dactyl foot schematically looks like this: | – –
Glorious autumn! Healthy, vigorous
The air invigorates tired forces ...
(N.A. Nekrasov)
| – – | – – | – – | –
| – – | – – | – – |
That's an example 4-foot dactyl.
Amphibrachius(from the Greek amfibrahus - short on both sides) - a three-syllable poetic size, where rhythmic stresses fall on 2nd, 5th, 8th, etc. syllables.
The foot of amphibrach looks like this: – | -
To the father, all trembling, the little one clung.
Having embraced, the old man holds and warms him.
(V.A. Zhukovsky)
– | – – | – – | – – |
– | – – | – – | – – |
That's an example 4-foot amphibrach.
On the blue waves of the ocean
Only the stars will shine in the sky...
(M.Yu. Lermontov)
– | – – | – – | –
– | – – | – – |
That's an example 3-foot amphibrach.
Anapaest(from the Greek anapestos - reflected back, i.e. reverse to dactyl) - a three-syllable poetic size, where rhythmic stresses fall on 3rd, 6th, 9th, etc. syllables.
The foot of the anapaest looks like this: - - |
Name me a place like this
I didn't get that angle...
(N.A. Nekrasov)
– – | – – | – – | –
– – | – – | – – |
That's an example 3-foot anapaest.
A poem differs from prose by composing a certain pattern from words, not only semantic, but also sound. Putting together a certain mosaic from them, the poet is able to convey the deepest experiences and vivid scenes. To create the rhythm and harmony of the work, certain rules of versification are used: observing the alternation in a certain order of strong and weak syllables (stressed and unstressed), called the foot; vigilance about meter or a constant number of repetitions of stops in each line.
disyllabic foot
In order to understand what iambic is, you need to carefully understand the stops in general. If we are talking about a two-syllable foot, to which iambic and trochee belong, then in this case unstressed syllables alternate with stressed ones, one after one. The stress falling on the first of the two syllables indicates that the foot belongs to the chorea:
A quiet pond here and there,
Rise up, walking on the waves...
Whereas the stress falling on the second syllable suggests that the examples:
WHEN THE WINTER WINTER rages,
And the heart prays for a friend,
Able to protect the soul ...
Then, and I'll take an arrow
And, there is no burning malice,
The aunt's fingers will let go...
Pyrrhic
These are two vivid examples that can give you an idea of what iambic is. When faced with serious classical poetry, it can be more difficult to determine the size of the foot. This is due to the distribution of stresses in them, which do not always coincide with the above scheme. What to do in this case:
Dawn blushed asking,
The river murmured on the sand,
And there, uphill, a foal
Listened to the breeze.
The foot is difficult to determine due to the uneven distribution of stress in words. What is it? Yamb? Chorea?
For such cases, there is a popular way to determine the size of the foot, which consists in "minting" a verse like a first-grader on a ruler, not paying attention either to the meaning of the words or to the correct placement of stresses in them. With such a recitation of the verse, one can notice the following pattern:
Za-rya-ru-mya-ni-las-ask-sonok,
Zhur-cha-la-rech-ka-po-pes-ku,
A-tAm-na-vzgO-rye-same-re-be-nok
At-hear-shi-val-sya-kve-ter-ku.
When reading a verse in this way, a number of additional stresses that are not inherent in words are revealed. You should pay attention to the sixth syllable in the first and third lines, the fourth and sixth - in the last, clearly demonstrating this poetic phenomenon. In literary criticism, it is called pyrrhic and is applicable to all sizes of the syllable.
In such a simple way, in the cited verse, every second syllable is stressed, and a typical iambic is exposed. Along with the chorea, it was the most popular syllable among the works of poets of the 19th century. Poems in iambic were preferred by: A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, A. S. Griboyedov and many other classics.
Trisyllabic foot
Trisyllabic feet include dactyl, amphibrach, and anapaest. These foot sizes are characterized by one stressed and two unstressed syllables accompanying it. The difference lies in the number of syllables on which the stress falls: dactyl has the first syllable stressed, amphibrach - the second, anapaest - the third. This can be seen in examples:
BRANCHES,
Dropping into the water,
She drinks the sky
Early on...
Amphibrachius:
When the world that is in me,
Restless will fall, in the spring ...
LOVE! Do not skimp on the madness of feelings,
No need to save a heart of fire!
Pour into me as into a vessel that is withered and empty...
Poetic size
The number of repeating stops in one line of a poem creates a certain meter. In the last example given, we are talking about the repetition of four three-syllable feet. Literally, this is called a four-foot anapaest.
The most common poetic meters characteristic of Russian classics are four-foot, three-foot and two-foot.
For example:
Goddess, who decorated the sky with herself,
Throws his eyes into my dreams ...
This example outlines the four-fold use of amphibrach in one line and has a corresponding name: four-foot amphibrach.
And the above passage, characterizing the dactyl foot, is two-footed.
What is an iamb three-foot or four-foot is easy to understand on the following
Examples:
sometimes delirium, and without knowing
Where am I going. And is it important to know...
This verse was written. It is also recognized in the immortal "Eugene Onegin", by A. S. Pushkin.
The following verse refers to iambic trimeter, and A. S. Griboedov resorts to it in his "Woe from Wit":
You can't shout prayers,
Prayers are silent ...
Now, when it is clear what is a trochee, and what is a dactyl, iambic or amphibrach, you can start writing your works. What is iambic for a poet? Probably the most comfortable size. You should start with him.
Composing poetry requires not only talent, but also a thorough theoretical preparation. Even in ancient times, when, it would seem, the attitude to creativity was simpler, and rhymed works were created on a whim and / or whim of the Muse, poets paid equal attention to the content and form of the work. And writers with a classical education were able to accurately determine the poetic size of a passage heard or read in passing. The poetic meter determines the tempo-rhythm and emotional spirit of the work, so its importance is undeniable.
It would be nice if professional poets complicate their lives by determining the size of poems, after all, this is their duty, vocation and work. But the task of determining the size of a poem becomes even for schoolchildren, because understanding the poetic meter is important for every educated person. Moreover, learning to determine the poetic size of the text is not so difficult, especially if you choose your favorite poem, beautiful and close in mood. However, it is possible to determine the meter of any poetic text, and we are ready to explain exactly how to do this.
What is poetic meter? Meters, sizes, feet
The poetic size is, in fact, the rhythmic form of the poem, that is, the structure of each specific rhymed text. Size, or rhythm - that's how poetry differs from prose. Therefore, it is not surprising that determining the size of a poem is important primarily for its analysis, classification, and even just understanding. But first you have to understand, or rather, find out what it consists of and what determines the poetic size:
- Number of syllables- usually equal in each line. A stressed syllable is called strong, and a stressed syllable is called weak. When the size of a poem is determined only by the number of syllables, without taking into account stress, then the poetic form is called syllabic. Often it underlies classical Italian, Ukrainian, Russian poetry.
- Number of strokes, the same in each line of the poem, and it is the stressed syllables that are taken into account, while the unstressed ones are not of fundamental importance for determining the size of the verse. This poetic form is called tonic, or accent, and the works of Vladimir Mayakovsky can serve as its typical example.
- Foot- a combination of several syllables, one of which is stressed, the rest are unstressed. One foot is a unit of measure for poetic meter. To determine the size of a verse, the number of feet in each line is counted, and thus the poem is called five-, six-, eight-foot, etc.
- Syllabo metric- counting and accounting for both syllables and stresses, but not only and not so much their total number, but a combination of long and short, stressed and unstressed syllables, their combination with each other. Accordingly, this system of versification is called syllabic-metric.
- Caesura- this is a pause, which in a poem can only be in a place of a certain size, but at the same time separates not only rhythmic, but also semantic parts. A caesura is necessary for the perception of a rhyming text, otherwise there will be neither breath for reading, nor hearing for a long monotonous, continuous line.
What are the meter sizes? Iambic, trochee, dactyl, anapaest
Before you determine the poetic size, you need to figure out exactly what sizes of poems exist - otherwise what are we going to determine? Since the role of the foot in meter is now clear, it remains to determine how the number and variety of feet affects meter, and what each of them is called:
- Yamb- one of the main poetic meters. The iambic foot consists of two syllables: unstressed and stressed (in other words: weak and strong, short and long). The most common is iambic tetrameter, in which the stress falls on every second, fourth, sixth and eighth syllable of each line. A typical example of iambic tetrameter: "My ya ya sa we are X Che natural right pitchfork."
- Chorey is another common size. It is also two-syllable, only with the top of the chorea first comes the stressed (strong, long) syllable, followed by the unstressed (weak, short). The four- and six-foot trochees are more common than the five-foot ones. A typical example of chorea: " Boo rya haze Yu not bo cro em."
- Dactyl- the three-syllable size of the verse, that is, its foot consists of three syllables: the first stressed and two subsequent unstressed. Using dactyl is more difficult than disyllabic meters, so dactyl lines rarely exceed three or four feet in length. A typical example of a four-foot dactyl: " That glasses are not be sleepy, ve with tra niki.
- Anapaest- poetic size, as if mirroring the dactyl, that is, of the three syllables of his foot, the first two do not have stress, and the stress falls on the last syllable. Silver Age poets often used the anapaest, so a typical example of it can be easily found in the poem by Alexander Blok: “Learn Yu you, zhi zn! Prini ma Yu! At wet I swear zvo nom cabbage soup that!».
- Amphibrachius- a three-syllable poetic meter, in the foot of which a strong (stressed) syllable is surrounded on both sides by weak (unstressed) ones. Quite complex, and therefore infrequently encountered size. A typical example of amphibrach: "There are same poverty in RU sskih ce le nyah."
How exactly do you determine the meter of a passage?
The analysis of a poem implies a complete, comprehensive examination of the text, necessarily including the definition of poetic size and meter. You can learn how to determine the size of a verse yourself if you take the above information as a basis and use the scheme for metrical analysis of a poem:
- Read aloud a poem requiring analysis. Do not pay attention to the meaning of the words, but try to emphasize accents and pauses clearly and distinctly. Listen to the rhythm of the voice. As an example, let's take Marina Tsvetaeva's poem "Grandmother".
- Write down the poem or its fragment for analysis line by line, from a new line. Leave enough space between lines on the page to make room for notes.
- Highlight (underline or mark) all stressed syllables in the text. This will be easy since you have already heard them while reading aloud. In our version it looks like this:
Pro for a long time wa ty and you redy o shaft,
Cher foot pla tya rast RU would…
YU naya ba bushka! Who whole shaftWa shea over men nye gu would?
- Count the number of unstressed syllables that fit between the stressed ones. As you remember, iambic and trochee are two-syllable poetic meters, and dactyl, amphibrach and anapaest are three-syllable.
- In our case, the line and foot begin with a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones. From this we conclude that Marina Tsvetaeva's poem "Grandmother" is written in dactyl, which is not surprising, given the sympathy of the poets of the Silver Age for three-syllable meters.
- The number of stops is determined by the number of stressed syllables in a line. In most poems, it is the same in every line, but in our case, the poetic form turned out to be more complicated. We can say that each odd line is written in four-foot dactyl, and each even line is written in three-foot.
The orderliness of poetic speech, the logic of its sound rhythm - this is the key to determining the size of the verse. Of course, there are exceptions in poetic texts, but they only confirm the rules and should not confuse you. If in doubt, do not be too lazy to write down the poem and number all its syllables. Put the numbers simply in order, without missing a single vowel. Then mark the numbers that will fall on the stressed vowels. If they are all even, that is, 2/4/6/8, then we have, without a doubt, iambic. If all strong syllables are under odd numbers - 1/3/5/7 - then the poem is a chorea. Three-syllable feet are determined according to the same principle: 1/4/7/10 for dactyl, 3/6/9/12 for anapaest and 2/5/8/11 for amphibrach.
Let this poem analysis scheme and a small cheat sheet always help you determine the poetic size of the text. And if one or more syllables at the end of the line get out of the picture, then this nuance should not confuse you. Moreover, this phenomenon, called pyrrhic, or missing stress, does not violate the composition of the verse and is simply not taken into account when determining the poetic size. Practice on familiar and new, classic and modern, simple and complex poems, and soon learn to quickly identify any meter.
