Iosif Brodsky’s Anapestic Dimeter: Rhythm and Semantics

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1427-9681.14.09

Keywords:

anapestic dimeter, semantic aureole of a meter, rhythm, dolnik, Iosif Brodsky, Boris Pasternak

Abstract

The paper discusses the poems by Iosif Brodsky written in cross-rhymed anapestic dimeter with alternating feminine and masculine line endings. The focus is on two poems titled “Strofy” (1968 and 1978). Anapestic dimeter is not typical of Brodsky’s work, his oeuvre includes only four poems written in this meter: “Stansy” (Stanzas, 1962), “Pod zanaves” (At Curtain-Call, 1965) and the two texts with the same title “Strofy” (Strophes, 1968 and 1978). Therefore, an assumption is made that the poet chooses it not by chance and that when doing so he follows the rhythmic patterns and semantic characteristics already established in Russian poetry in connection with this meter. Anapestic dimeter is rarely encountered in Russian poetry, with the main period of its development being the twentieth century, and the set of texts written in this meter limited, which makes it possible to clearly outline the range of possible “metrical pre-texts” of Brodsky’s poems. The metrical and rhythmic characteristics of anapestic dimeter of Brodsky are analysed and compared with those of Boris Pasternak and, on a smaller scale, those of Anna Akhmatova and Innokenty Annensky. The analysis of the poem “Strofy” (1978) shows how Brodsky makes a new use of the metrical-rhythmic potential contained in a seven- or six-syllable speech segment by combining two-word lines of anapestic dimeter with three-word (and therefore three-beat) tonic verses – at the same time retaining the connection both with his predecessors (here, Pasternak) and with his own texts, written earlier or over the same period.

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Author Biography

Olga Barash, Obrazovatelnyi resurs Language-travel.ru, 121352, Moskva, ul. Davydkovskaia, d. 4, k. 2, kv. 100

Бараш Ольга Яковлевна – переводчик и редактор издательств «Аль- пина», Academic Studies Press. Филолог, независимый исследователь. На- учные интересы: теория и практика перевода, сопоставительная поэтика, русская и польская поэзия ХХ века, жизнь и творчество Иосифа Бродского. Из недавних публикаций: О некоторых лексико-синтаксических вырази- тельных средствах в двуязычном творчестве И. Бродского, [в:] От билинг- визма к транслингвизму: про и контра, Москва: Рос. ун-т дружбы народов 2017, с. 266–270; От Норенской до Нью-Йорка: мотив дома в «изгнанниче- ской» лирике И. Бродского, [в:] Проблема изгнания: русский и американский контексты, Ярославль: Ярославский гос. пед. ун-т им. К. Д. Ушинского 2017, с. 69–76; К семантике белого пятистопного ямба И. Бродского: еще раз о «странных сонетах», [в:] Производство смысла, Тверь: Тверской гос. ун-т 2018, с. 229–243; Никакой другой Иосиф не есть Осип Мандельштам (О. Ман- дельштам в поэзии И. Бродского), «Ostkraft. Литературная коллекция» 2020, № 2/3(17), с. 348–360; О мандельштамовских подтекстах у И. Бродского: «Колыбельная Трескового мыса», «Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Rossica» 2020, № 13, с. 43–55.

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Published

2021-12-23

How to Cite

Barash, O. (2021). Iosif Brodsky’s Anapestic Dimeter: Rhythm and Semantics. Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Rossica, (14), 97–110. https://doi.org/10.18778/1427-9681.14.09

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