Versification question, Tsvetaeva

[Alexandra Smith]

Dear Francois,

Your impulse to put the stress on pO in "O tu poru" is correct,in my opinion.
I would have recited it like this: atupO/rukAk/nadrekOj/maskvOj.
I think that the poem exemplifies Tsvetaeva's dol'nik which was  
defined by Gerald Smith as logaedic metre. See his excellent articles  
on this issue: G.S. Smith. "Logaoedic metres in Tsvetaeva's lyrics",  
Slavonic and East European Review, vol.LIII, No.132, July, 1975,  
pp.332-54; and: G.S. Smith "Compound metres in the poetry of Marina  
Cvetaeva", Russian literature, 8, 1980, p.103-23.
Mikhail Gasparov established a compelling link between logaoedic metre  
and song. (M. L. Gasparov. Ocherk istoriirusskogo stikha: Metrika.  
Titmika. Rifma. strofika. Moscow, 1984.)
Since the cycle is dedicated to Blok, Tsvetaeva tries to reproduce  
Blok's own orientation towards folk songs.
PS. I would imagine that Kviatkovskij might have defined the metre of  
this poem as  taktovik. Yet Tsvetaeva's  repetition of  the same  
pattern in the second half of each stanza makes her metric pattern  
similar to logaedic metre.

With best wishes,
Alexandra






-----------------------------------------
Alexandra Smith (PhD, University of London)
Reader in Russian Studies
Department of European Languages and Cultures
School of  Languages, Literatures and Cultures
The University of Edinburgh
David Hume Tower
George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9JX
UK

tel. +44-(0)131-6511381
fax: +44- (0)131- 650-3604
e-mail: Alexandra.Smith at ed.ac.uk



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