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democratic meter
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>>>>>EDNote: Russian uses the term "amphibrach" for lines with this rhythm:
-`- -`- -`- -`(-) If I'm not misremembering, it is mentioned in Fyodor's Chernyshevsky book (in The Gift) as the "democratic meter" preferred by Nekrasov.
True, most of Nekrasov's "Moroz, krasnyi nos" (The Red-Nosed Frost, 1863) is written in amphibrachs (the title itself is an amphibrachic line whith an inner rhyme), but Nekrasov's favorite meter used in most of his topical poems was anapest. I transcribe from The Gift:
"Extraordinarily indicative in respect of all this is Chernyshevski's attempt to prove (The Contemporary for 1856) that the ternary metre (anapaest, dactyl) is more natural to Russian than the binary one (iamb, trochee). The first (except when it is used in the making of the noble, 'sacred' - and therefore hateful - dactylic hexameter) seems more natural to Chernyshevski, 'more wholesome', in the way that a bad rider thinks a gallop is 'simpler' than trotting... Confused by the rhythmic emancipation of Nekrasov's broad-rolling verse and by Koltsov's elementary anapaests ('Why asleep, muzhichyok?') Chernyshevski scented something democratic in the ternary metre, something which charmed the heart, something 'free' but also didactic, as opposed to the aristocratic air of the iamb: he believed that poets wished to convince should use the anapaest." (p. 221 of the Penguin edition)
Alexey Sklyarenko
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-`- -`- -`- -`(-) If I'm not misremembering, it is mentioned in Fyodor's Chernyshevsky book (in The Gift) as the "democratic meter" preferred by Nekrasov.
True, most of Nekrasov's "Moroz, krasnyi nos" (The Red-Nosed Frost, 1863) is written in amphibrachs (the title itself is an amphibrachic line whith an inner rhyme), but Nekrasov's favorite meter used in most of his topical poems was anapest. I transcribe from The Gift:
"Extraordinarily indicative in respect of all this is Chernyshevski's attempt to prove (The Contemporary for 1856) that the ternary metre (anapaest, dactyl) is more natural to Russian than the binary one (iamb, trochee). The first (except when it is used in the making of the noble, 'sacred' - and therefore hateful - dactylic hexameter) seems more natural to Chernyshevski, 'more wholesome', in the way that a bad rider thinks a gallop is 'simpler' than trotting... Confused by the rhythmic emancipation of Nekrasov's broad-rolling verse and by Koltsov's elementary anapaests ('Why asleep, muzhichyok?') Chernyshevski scented something democratic in the ternary metre, something which charmed the heart, something 'free' but also didactic, as opposed to the aristocratic air of the iamb: he believed that poets wished to convince should use the anapaest." (p. 221 of the Penguin edition)
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/