Versification question, Tsvetaeva

[Olga Meerson]

Beyond all doubt, it is О ту ПОру как... (o tu POru kak...).
As for dol'nik, it is a correct definition but too general (my problem with dol'nik, always: it is like saying that a musical piece is written in the meter of 3/4, not 4/4: correct but does not specify what lengths of sounds fill in EACH measure). I would say, dactyl_iamb twice per line, with the exception of the one with "kolokola". In the context of the rest of the lines it should be parsed something like dactyl+iamb, and then, 4th paeon+ iamb (not three feet of iamb--because of the context, i.e., accounting not merely for the icti of the line but for what you add the extra-syllable TO). These things, like everything concerning "dol'nik", are much easier to depict in musical notation. In the case of "kolokola", there is also some onomatopoeia here as well: church bells rarely quite coincide with one another, so there are extra-rings here and there at times. In our case, it is the extra -o- between -l- and -k- in "kolokola" (should be something like "kolkola". Well, come to!
  think of it, with all the reduction, the middle "o" is pronounced like a shwa. But still reduction or no, short syllables or long, this word is quadrisyllabic. Pity the dol'nik classifications never convey these nice points!
o.m.

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