On the vertical rhythm of N. Nekrasov's ternary trimeters

The paper aims to provide analysis of the principles of vertical (within-the-stanza) rhythmic organisation of the Russian poet N. Nekrasov's ternary trimeters. The problem is formulated as follows: are there any distinct patterns in the arrangement of word boundaries in different lines of a quatrain and, if so, how do they correspond with the arrangement of word boundaries within a line? The frequency distribution of the most simple, paired, vertical combinations of word boundaries dependent on the rhyme scheme (in pairs of odd and even lines of AbAb quatrain) reveals a contrasting opposition of Nekrasov's anapest and amphibrach; it encompasses both the tendencies in the distribution of different types of word boundaries and the strong positions where these tendencies are actualized. Thus, the feminine and the dactylic word boundaries, on the one hand, and the masculine word boundary, on the other hand, are opposed in the first strong position of anapest and the second strong position of amphibrach: 1) the number of feminine and dactylic word boundaries in anapest increases in the second line of each pair, while the number of masculine word boundaries decreases; 2) the number of feminine and dactylic word boundaries in amphibrach, on the contrary, decreases in the second line of each pair, while the number of masculine word boundaries increases. In the second strong position of anapest and the first strong position of amphibrach three different patterns can be distinguished: 1) the distribution of "foot-constituting" word boundaries - the masculine in anapest and the feminine in amphibrach - is governed by the same principle: they are less frequent in the third line of the quatrain than in the first one and more frequent in the fourth line of the quatrain than in the second one; 2) the distribution of dactylic word boundaries in anapest and masculine word boundaries in amphibrach is governed by the same principle: their frequency decreases in the second lines of both pairs in the quatrain; 3) the distribution of feminine word boundaries in anapest and dactylic word boundaries in amphibrach is governed by the same principle: their frequency increases in the second lines of both pairs in the quatrain. These tendencies suggest that the vertical (within-the-stanza) arrangement of word boundaries in Nekrasov's anapaest and amphibrach reproduces at a higher, stanzaic, level the same "double-pitched" rhythmic movement that has been earlier identified at the horizontal (within-the-line) level: in accordance with it, the first word boundary determines the beginning of the line (anapest uses the masculine one, amphibrach the feminine / dactylic one), while the second word boundary is contrasted with the first on the grounds of "ascending" and "descending" rhythmical movement (anapest uses the feminine / dactylic one, amphibrach the masculine one) and tends to coincide with a clausula. In other words, the word boundaries rhythms of line and stanza in Nekrasov's poetry are homogeneous.

Keywords

Authors

References