4204617

University College London
French Influence on Russian Symbolist Versification

Author(s): Georgette Donchin
Source: The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 33, No. 80 (Dec., 1954), pp. 161-187
Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London,
School of Slavonic and East European Studies
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French
Russian
on
Influence
Versification
Symbolist
GEORGETTE
DONCHIN
of symbolist
poetry was the disruption
The process of emancipation
had
the
end
of
the
it
started
before
but
19th century,
actually
long
In a sense,
reached its peak and became effective with the symbolists.
the disintegration
of the
they merely carried to its logical conclusion
which
had
classical
rules
the
romantics
The
arbitrary
inaugurated.
need for a more subtle and flexible medium than the traditional
metre
In France it
could provide
was felt both in France and in Russia.
One
of the main
of the old forms
achievements
of versification.
the vers libre; in Russia it revolutionised

the very principle
produced
of versification
and gave birth to the so-called, dol'niki. In spite of the
of the two systems
of versification,
the
apparent
independence
Russian movement
in the general adoption
which culminated
of the
tonic
principle
was not entirely
free from French
influence.
II
Since Trediakovsky
and Lomonosov
classical
Russian
metre had
been both syllabic and accentual:
it was syllabic, because it was based
on a constant
number
of unaccented
between
two stresses,
syllables
and accentual?or
to
as
the
Russians
call
it
it?because
tonic,
prefer
was based on the number of stresses. Thus the syllabo-tonic
versifica?
on a regular alternation
of accented
and unaccented
at
or
intervals.
The
total
number
of syllables
syllables,
binary
ternary
in the line does not vary, and the foot constitutes
the primary
unit.
tion is founded
Smaller
or greater deviations
from this set scheme were bound to be
of the develop?
made, and in part they were merely a consequence
ment of the Russian language
itself, which had already rejected the
that had reigned
versification
until Lomonosov.
The influ?
syllabic
ence of popular poetry was one of the factors which enabled
Russian
forms. Resistance
to
poetry to free itself from the bonds of traditional
Lomonosov's
iamb started with Karamzin,
and subsequently
many
the monotony
of the syllabo-tonic
poets resented
system and con?
to the spirit of the language.
sidered it contrary
Another
factor?
of German
romantic
perhaps more influential?was
the*penetration
dol'niki into Russian literature.
This was one of those instances
when
A complete
role than original
works.
play a greater
had been established
to translate West European
romantic
on folk-songs?in
their original
works?themselves
based
metre.
translations
tradition
THE
l62
SLAVONIC
REVIEW
and English,
from German
in some of his translations
Zhukovsky
and
in
translations
of
in
his
Lermontov
Tyutchev
Byron,
rendering
had already
used tonic verse, but as yet not the pure
of Uhland
from Heine mark a more sustained
dol'nik. Translations
use of the
render
Thus Fet and Apollon
Heine
into
new rhythm.
Grigor'yev
from
Russian by using true dol'niki. Fet also does this in translations
Thomas
Moore
and
Goethe.
At the same
time
the romantic
dol'niki
can
into original works, but only isolated examples
begin to infiltrate
Podobe found in Lermontov,
Bestuzhev-Marlinsky,
Khomyakov,
and Fet.
linsky, and rather more in Tyutchev
are the first to use this verse frequently.
Alongside
symbolists
the first original
translations
from German
traditional
appear
and Tsvety nochi
modern
dol'niki: Zinaida
Pesnya (1891)
Hippius's
0 Prekrasnoy
of
Blok's
Stikhi
urban
Bryusov's
1896,
poems
(1894),
Dame (1901-2),
7"ol'ko lyubov'
Bely's ?oloto v lazuri (1904), Balmont's
Ivanov's
Khvala solntsu, Attika i Galileya. In spite
(1906), Vyacheslav
of the comparatively
numerous
of dol'niki, their use did not
examples
The
the
among the older generation

outgrow the stage of metrical experiment
Dol'niki
became
an
of Russian
symbolists.
organic
part of Russian
a
in
the
about
the
Beautiful
form of versi?
'Verses
Lady',
prosody
metre had been. And
fication in its own right, as the old syllabo-tonic
it is correct
to say that, with Blok, Russian

tonic verse enters a new
one
Blok's indebtedness
of
recognises
provided
development,
period
also
to
not only to his German
but
and Zinaida
models,
Bryusov
from
whom
the
learned
of
his poetic
much
young
Hippius,
poet
After
a
dol'niki
became
of
Blok,
technique.
general
acquisition
and
were
used
Russian
and
poetry
widely
by Kuzmin,
Gumilyov,
others. With Akhmatova
and Mayakovsky
a different
they acquired
the same.
basically remaining
that French
the evolution
affected
symbolism
in
in
Russia
a
towards tonic verse
twofold way. Firstly, this evolution
to an acutely felt need: the modern ear was attuned to
corresponded
a more fluid and musical
demanded
music, and modern
sensibility
character,
It may
although
be said
of expression.
in this respect had been very
Verlaine's
influence
There is no doubt that indirectly,
by shaping part of Russian
he also strengthened
the inherent
trend towards
aesthetics,
symbolist
tonic versification.
the
that
surrounded
Secondly,
great controversy
the appearance
of vers libre in France,
and the host of theories which
to the fore questions
of the nature of rhythm
did not pass
brought
unnoticed
a
of
intent
on
among
community
young poets
experiments
of all kinds and profoundly
aware of the rapid changes
that were
taking place in French poetry.
mode
strong.
Although
nowledged
French influence
in general
terms,
on Russian
the
question
has been ack?

symbolism
of such influence
on the
RUSSIAN
SYMBOLIST
VERSIFICATION
163
has not been put

of the Russian
actual
versification
symbolists
to
fact
that
French prosody
the
due
This is probably
hitherto.
mainly
from
its
Russian
different
has been thought radically
By
counterpart.
was considered
French versification
the middle of the 19th century
that French verse had no
It was widely
believed
entirely
syllabic.
of syllables.
Modern
rely on a count
the syllabo-tonic
have now acknowledged
however
French prosodists
versification
of French verse.1 A comparison
with Russian
principle
was
of syllables
can now be made. In both cases the total number
and
accent
constant,
Russians
must
therefore
but while
the syllable itself was the unit of French verse, the

foot as their unit. One notable
difference
the
retained
between the two systems lies in the fact that in French the tonic accent
of the word is extremely
be?
of quantity
feeble, and the distinction
In
main
the
classical
alexandrine
the
tween
very
slight.
syllables
accents were on the last sounded
syllable of the line and also on the
last sounded
the caesural
immediately
syllable
pause.
preceding
Thus
the unity of the verse was ensured by the necessary

recurrence
to the secondary
fixed accents.
But it is mainly
(unfixed)
that the alexandrine
accents
owed its flexibility.
line
The ternary
also contributed
to making the alexandrine
more plastic. The multi?
of two
combinations
however
was primarily
rhythmical
plicity of possible
due to freedom in the disposition
of the secondary
accents, this being
the reason why French verse succeeded
for such a long time in avoid?
which the symbolists
were resolved to break. The
ing that monotony
Russians regarded
of stress as one of the main advan?
the irregularity
of
and
French
verse
therefore
felt still more strongly the need to
tages
enliven their own rhythms.
Verlaine's
role in the dislocation
of the old systems of versification
is important
from the Russian point of view. The French poet failed
to see that
accentual.
French
This
verse
was,
misconception
he exercised
from
the first, not only syllabic

him from approving
prevented
but
vers
his rhythms within the limits of a fixed

libre; but though
of syllables,
number
to prepare
he did everything
the way and to
render it inevitable.
The elder generation
of Russian symbolists
were
in practice
than in theory,
more cautious
and their verse, on the
vers libere. Without
the
to Verlaine's
whole, corresponded
destroying
mould of the alexandrine,
went further than any of his pre?
Verlaine
in adapting
decessors
French verse to the fluctuations
and nuances
of the vaguer emotions.
in
the
number
of
verse-forms
By increasing
use and reviving
the vers impair, by dislocating
rhythms,
practising
the regular fall of the caesura,
Verlaine
enjambements, and ignoring
broke up the regularity
French verse to a much greater
of traditional
1 Cf. Robert de
Souza, Le rythmepoitique,Paris, 1892, passim, and Maurice Grammont,
Petit traiti de versification
frangaise, 13th ed., Paris, 1949, p. 150.
THE
164
SLAVONIC
REVIEW
to it the fluidity
the romantics
and
did, and imparted
that
the
new
demanded.
subject-matter
vague
Verlaine's
to vers litre seems at a certain point to have
opposition
in the preface to one of
influenced
the young Bryusov,
who claimed
than
degree
music
of poems that the Russian symbolist

poets were
to
in
the
field
insensitive
of
the
new vers
experiments
'completely
libre'.2 It is true that at first, in spite of bold innovations
in subjectmatter and exaggerated
novel imagery,
the rhythmical
structure
of
Russian
verse remained
untouched.
to
trans?
Hardly
any attempts
form versification
can be found among the elder generation
of sym?
his earliest
collections
bolists?in
or Merezhkovsky.
Their innovations
do not go
Minsky
a
a
few
few
internal
a
and
assonances,
beyond
rhymes,
greater stress
on alliteration.
Even in 1894, Bryusov in Russkiye simvolisty considered
the attempt
to enliven French versification
as incidental
and beyond
the task of symbolism:
... it is necessary to divorce from symbolism a number of undoubtedly
alien elements which have been attached to it in France: such is mysticism,
such is the striving to reform prosody and the introduction of old words and
rhythms connected with it. ... All these are incidental additions to sym?
bolism.3
But the perspective
with time, and Bryusov later admitted
changed
he had been very interested
in this 'incidental
addition
to sym?
tried his hand at the new experiments
and had consciously
bolism',
in the very same publication.
He wrote:
that
In the two issues of the 'Russian Symbolists'

which I have edited, I
to present examples
of all forms of new poetry that I had
attempted
become acquainted
with: vers libre, verbal instrumentation,
parnassian
Rim?
accuracy, wilful obscurity of meaning in the spirit of Mallarme,
baud's adolescent
desinvolture . . . [This was] a conscious selection of
examples. . . .4
Between
more intensively
with
1902 and 1903 Bryusov experimented
vers libre and devoted to it a complete
section of Urbi et Orbi. He wrote
in the preface:
...
in the chapter 'Experiments'
(Iskaniya) I strove to apply to Russian
literature some peculiarities
of Tree verse', vers libre, evolved in France by
E. Verhaeren and F. Viele-Griffin
and successfully put to use in Germany
R.
Dehmel
Rilke.
and
R.
.
.
.
by
Contemporary
poetry has among its aims
the task of seeking a freer, more supple, and more capacious verse.5
The emancipation
of Russian
verse was prompted
by the strong
2 Reported
in
Anichkov
i
St
by Yevgeny
Literaturnyye
obrazy mneniya, Petersburg, 1904,
p. 152.
3
V.
A.
ed.
Maslov, Moscow, 1894, 2nd issue.
simvolisty,
4 Russkiye
Quoted by Y. Tynyanov, Arkhaistyi novatory,Leningrad, 1929, p. 524.
6 Moscow,
1903. It is noteworthy that the same wording was used by Rene Ghil who, in
De lapoesiescientifique,
also called for 'a freer, more supple, and more capacious verse'.
RUSSIAN
SYMBOLIST
VERSIFICATION
165
to assert the individuality

of the
among symbolists
prevalent
and
and
his
his
to
freedom
in
both
life
determina?
work,
right
poet,
of every kind. In France,
tion to escape from traditional
conformity
desire
libke or libre, was free only in its intention

to shake off
verse, whether
it
of traditional
the domination
was
the
in tech?
metres;
expression
of
the
of
the
essential
movement?individual?
symbolist
spirit
nique
ism. Successive
in their verse their per?
experimenters
approached
either
sonal ideal of freedom;
modified
old forms or invented
they
new
to suit their
ones
sensibilities.
and especially
Verlaine
Already
1886
had
of
that
the
structure
of verse
generation
proclaimed
the
of
on
movement
emotion
and
that
the
entirely
depended
poetic
for
phrase was no longer subject to laws. Bryusov admired Verhaeren
'a
master
as
as
of
many rhythms
being
Vesy published
thoughts'.6
the
Rene
Ghil's
reminder
of'these
basic truths'
of symbolism:
of the world cannot fail to create a new and

conception
but profoundly
adequate poetic language as well as a new exceptional,
of rhythm. Thought
. . . creates its own eternally
logical understanding
rhythm which we sense as an emotion revealed to the outside
developing
is inherent in Thought
and Word, which are both
Rhythm
[world].
. . .7
indivisible.
. . . The
Thus
new
the new
vidualism.
is the triumphant
of symbolist
indi?
expression
every poet is aware that he has his own, per?
which is the source of all poetry within himself. And
verse
Henceforth
sonal, rhythm,
when Bryusov
says:
I deem the aim of the 'new art' ... is to confer complete freedom on crea?
tive art. The artist is absolutely
in the form of his work,
independent
metre
the
of
.
in
with
and
.
.
the
entire range of its con?
verse,
beginning
tent . . .8
it is quite
that he is following
obvious
the teachings
of his French
predecessors.
It may well be that the new form would have appeared
organically
of the new content
as the only expression
of poetry. But besides the
fact that the new ideas were also partly a product of French influence,
there is no doubt that some of the Russian symbolists?among
them
most certainly
towards
France for some guidance
Bryusov?looked
in this problem
of adjusting
form to content.
were entirely of national
Russian
versification
the fact that the authority
of the
disregard
moral support to the younger
vided welcome
of their precarious
in the world of
position
Even
if the evolution
of
one
not
could
origin,
French symbolists
pro?
Russian
letters,
poets. In view
they could not
6 Bryusov, 'O knigakh' (Vesy,3, 1904, p.

55).
7 Rene Gnil, 'O knigakh' (Vesy, 12,
1905,
8 Preface to Tertiavigilia, Moscow, 1900. p. 78).
THE
l66
SLAVONIC
REVIEW
to neglect such authoritative

support. Bryusov
that he had sought French models:
admitting
is explicit
afford
when
The influence of Pushkin and of the elder symbolists strangely merged

within myself, and I either sought the classical severity of Pushkin's verse
or dreamt about that new freedom which the new French poets acquired
for poetry. In my verse of that time (the 1890's) these influences were
interwoven in the most unexpected ways.9
for acquainting
Bryusov was largely responsible
As one critic said,
the French poetic tradition.
ture was open to the West'.10
his fellow-poets
with
'the window
of litera?
III
Many
Verlaine
to the emancipated
symbolists
pointed
as the preceding
stage from which modern
to regard
there
is a tendency
Although
emerged.
fication
as an incidental
dom
of mediaeval
metres
versification
French
Verlaine's
from
evolutionary
phase deriving
and rhythms,11
the fact remains
line, the vers libere, was accepted

by
1886 as more or less their standard
novelties
first in Romances
appeared
real revelation
to Bryusov,
which
the
in
Although
poems
question
rather than of innovation,
Verlaine
before
of
free verse
versi?
the free?
that
his
and even after
many poets
Verlaine's
medium.12
rhythmical
sans paroles (1874)?a
work of a
he lovingly
in 1894.
translated
were examples
of modification
the rhythmical
enriched
forms in
the subdivisions
of the alexandrine,
slurred
use. He boldly multiplied

the caesura and, perhaps most important
of all, popularised
the vers
He
lines
of
and even thirteen
used
nine, eleven,
impair.
frequently
seldom found in regular poetry.
The use of the
syllables?numbers
can be compared
to some extent to
impair by the French symbolists
the use of trisyllabic
metres by the Russian romantic
poets. Both the
metres were more suitable
to the 'musical'
impair and the trisyllabic
connected
with the break-up
of the
lyric poetry. Both are definitely
traditional
In France
metres.
the impair leads to verse becoming
metres are closely connected
with
polymorphe. In Russia the trisyllabic
the leaning towards tonic versification.
In the 18th century trisyllabic
metres are used only exceptionally.
somewhat
more
They become
But while Fet
popular with the romantics,
starting with Zhukovsky.
still uses only twenty
metres
out
of
a
total
of a hundred
trisyllabic
has
and
the
metres
become
poems, Bryusov already
fifty,
trisyllabic
of
typical
symbolist
poetry.13
9 Quoted by
10 Ibid.
Tynyanov,
op. cit., p. 537.
11 This is Robert de Souza's
view, op.cit.
12 The poetry of Mallarme as well as the
greater part of that of Rimbaud was also
written in 'liberated' verse.
13 See B.
Tomashevsky, Teoriyaliteratury,Leningrad, 1925, pp. iii sq. For examples of
trisyllabic metres, cf. Bryusov's Otstupi,kak otliv . . . and Blok's Moy lyubimyy,moyknyaz' . . .
SYMBOLIST
RUSSIAN
VERSIFICATION
167
as his pre?
not so strictly
still counts syllables,
Verlaine
though
He almost reaches,
that
and certainly
decessors.
prepares,
stage of
as 'the stage of
versification
which
French
has been characterised
dislocation':14
penultimate
Il est, en poesie, un resultat tangible de 1'effort du symbolisme: le brisement
cela
du vers. On ne fait plus le vers franâis comme Sully-Prudhomme,
est certain. La cesure est abolie et ne revit que par hasard, par habitude,
en vue d'un effort particulier. Le nombre exact des syllabes rf est plus necessaire
a la mesure des vers; les muettes comp tent ou ne comptent
pas, selon la
Ton
veut
,15
dessiner...
musique que
of syllables
is no longer
to the
necessary
this variability
in the quantity
of syllables
is one of the most important
In
traits of purely tonic versification.
most cases, the number
of stresses is constant,
as in native German
But there is also a free tonic verse in which the number
of
poetry.
accents varies from one line to another, for instance:
Thus
an
measure
exact
number
of the verse.
And
Eejitie BCTajna cyrpoGu

M MpaKH OTKpHJIHCb
Blhijihji
cepeSpHHBin
H MH yHOCHJIHCB
06a
OSpeneHHtie
(3)
(2)
cepn
Ha ymep6.
(3)
(2)
(2)
(1)
(Blok)
This
is the nearest the dol'niki come to the

way, the free verse is only a special case of
a dol'nik in which the number
of accents
sition of accents
was already
inherent
in
French vers libre and, in a

the purely tonic verse, it is
varies. As the free dispo?
French verse of the 19th
accents of the alexandrine),

it is natural that
century
(the secondary
the French
their attempt
to dislocate
the old forms
symbolists?in
?should
have
arrived
at the vers libre. But in Russian
straight
a further step.
prosody, vers libre being a variety of dol'nik, this implied
to Pyast, there were two currents
in modern
Russian
According
versification?one
towards
the weakening
of
romanisation,
through
the importance
of stress; the second?towards
germanisation,
through
cultivation
of every kind of pauznik.16 The Russian
dol'niki fol?
lowed the German
of stresses in one line
pattern when the number
the same as that in the corresponding
remained
line (allowing
for
occasional
The
of
dol'nik
correlative
to
the
vers
French
pauses).
type
libre implied
a different number
of accents in every line of the poem
and it usually occurred
when the basic foot was slurred or a mixture
14 The expression is used
by P. Mansell Jones, The Backgroundto ModernFrenchPoetry,
Cambridge, 1951.
15 Remy de Gourmont, Promenades
UtUraires,IV, 7th ed., Paris, 19020, p. 90.
16 V. Pyast,
Sovremennoye
stikhovedeniye,
Leningrad, 1931, p. 49.
the
THE
168
SLAVONIC
REVIEW
In other
words, the basic foot of such a verse was

as well as
varied
(the variation
being thus qualitative
constantly
to the point of its being practically
non-existent
and
quantitative)
Thus, from the Russian point of view, such free
by syllables.
replaced
verses are even freer than the dol'niki of German
type and are some?
of metres
was used.
as prose-verse.
The distinction
between
Russian free
and German type was made by Bryusov.17
first experiments
in modern
dol'niki was Zinaida
in
which
a
tonic
verse with four
Pesnya
(1891),
Hippius's
poem
accents was used in combination
with shorter lines:
times
described
verses of French
One of the
b nenajin 6e3yMH0H h yMHpaio.

H yMHpaio.
OrpeMJiiocL k TOMy, êro h He 3Haio,
He 3Haio.
... Ybh,
H 9to >KejiaHHe He 3Haio orayfla,

IIpHHIJIO OTKyâ,
Ho eepflne xoneT h npocHT nyâ,
^yâ ! ...
It has been noted that the first verse of this poem can fit the metrical
But when compared
scheme
of the iamb.18
to the following
lines
which are built on purely tonic principle,
the first line too must be
as a dol'nik (there are only three stresses in the first verse,
considered
four in the remaining
therefore
that
long lines). It is not surprising
at a theoretical
the first attempts
of
Russian
dol'niki
were
made
study
from the usual syllabo-tonic
schemes.
The theory
of rhythmical
'deviations'
advanced
by Bely led him to consider the particularities
tonic verse as deviations
of purely
from traditional
metres.
Bely
that there could be no rhythm
without
of
irregularity
He thus described
the first dol'niki of the Russian symbolists
as
line in which the syllable missing
dipauznyy stikh, a kind of a catalectic
from the regular metrical
of a
pattern was explained
by the presence
pause in its place. Bely traces the first pauses in the triple dol'nik feet
of Zinaida Hippius and Bryusov, and quotes:
maintained
metre.
Tboh
He includes
,n;eBa co B3opoM
in the same category
many
A BeTep 30ByniHH
mryqHM...
of Blok's poems,
viz.
c ceBepa...19
the Russian
romantic
dol'niki came from the trisyllabic
Historically,
metres (dactyl, amphibrach,
and in a way Russian accen?
anapaest),
tual verse still bears traces of a metrical
system, the accent being the
17 Cf. fM.,, p. 305.
18 V. Zhirmunsky, Vvedeniye
v metriku,Leningrad, 1925, p. 219.
19A. Bely, Simvolizm,Moscow, 19io, p.
557.
RUSSIAN
SYMBOLIST
VERSIFICATION
169
Bely, Bobrov considered

Following
of the anapaest with pauses. So did
that the pauznik (Bobrov's
term) was the most
Pyast who claimed
characteristic
rhythm of the first volume of Blok's poems.20 According
the following
dol'niki of Blok's would
be
to this school of thought,
fundamental
the Russian
interpreted
element
of the foot.
dol'niki as a variation
in this manner:
IIpHCTaHB 6e3MOJiBHa. 3eMjin 6jiH3Ka.
He BHftHO.
HoHb rjiy6oKa.
3eMJin
A
AA
Ctoio
Ha ceptix
AA
Bypa
xoxoneT
mokdbix
b ce^tix
,o;ocKax.
Ky^pax.
AA
AA
on a triple dol'nik rhythm, and the

poem being constructed
feet being adjusted to the general pattern by the
dissyllabic
is against such an interpretation,
of a pause. Zhirmunsky
for
inclusion
though he admits that in certain cases there is some relation between
the dominating
rhythm of a poem written in purely tonic verse and
the traditional
scheme, he rejects Bobrov's view that the
syllabo-tonic
two systems can be united into one single?metrical?principle.21
work by the beginning
Dol'niki already appear in Bryusov's
of the
in his poems of 1896 (Me eum esse). Bryusov varies
1890's, especially
the whole
occasional
dol'niki by alternating
the normal
pattern of the romantic
between
the stresses with three or
or two unaccented
syllables
He thus gives to his metre an inter?
even more unaccented
syllables.
the rhythm of conversational
better
renders
character
which
rupted
the usual
one
language:
C onymeHHHM B3opoM, b nejiepHHOHKe 6eJion
OHa mhmo Hac npocKOJib3Hyjia necMejio,
C onymeHHtiM B3opoM, b nejiepHHO^Ke Sejioii...
?
... H tojibko He6o ? Bcer,o;a rojiy6oe,
b CTporoM noKoe,
Chhjio, npenpacHoe,
Oaho jihih He6o, Bcer.ua rojiySoe !...
(?Ha 6yjibBape?)
To the same period belong the dol'niki of Ta deystvitel'nosti nashey ne
vizhu, Tedva yey bylo 14 let, Test' chto- to pozornoye v moshchi prirody,
The same rhythm is used much later by
Mechta (Me eum esse, 1896-7).
dol'nik
Balmont
dom,
1906). Blok follows Bryusov's
(viz. Boloto, Staryy
of a weaker rhythm and bring
when he wants to create the impression
the poem nearer to the conversational
pulse of prose. And so he uses
in
the
as for instance in:
three or more unstressed
intervals,
syllables
20 V. Pyast, 'O pervom tome Bloka' (Ob Al. Bloke?stat'i, St Petersburg, 1921, p. 227).
In his study of Russian rhythm, Pyast considered the term dol'nikas vague and unsatis?
stikhovedeniye,
p. 56).
fying. He preferredpauznik(cf. Sovremennoye
21 Cf. Zhirmunsky, op. cit., p. 195.
THE
170
REVIEW
SLAVONIC
b chhhbh.
KpeeTHJia AeTen.
H flera yBHjiejiH paftOCTHbin coh.
nojio>KHJia, ao nojiy kjiohhcb tojioboh,
nOCJieAHHH 3eMH0H nOKJIOH.
BcTajia
Kojih
PaôcTHO B3,n;oxHyji,
npocHyjica.
erne
CHy
TojiySoMy
pa3 HaHBy.
h
npoKaTHjicH
3aMep CTeKJiHHHHH ryji:
3BeHHHi,aH ABepb xjionHyjia
BHH3y.
nponiJiH naen.
npnxoAHJi neJiOBeK
6jihxoh Ha Tenjion nianne.
C ojiobhhhoh
CTynaji h jjOHomajicfl y ftBepn nejiOBeK.
Hhkto
He OTKpmi.
HrpajiH
b npHTKH...
(?H3 ra3eT?)
Even
two accented
syllables
are allowed
to stand side by side:
Cmotph, nana, CMOTpn

KaKOH k HaM Kopa6jib njiuBeT...
the rhythm in this kind of dol'niki, Bryusov and Blok
By weakening
prepare the vers libre and the type of tonic verse used by Akhmatova,
and the 'proletarian
But Blok's usual dol'nik
Mayakovsky,
poets'.
romantic
belongs to the melodious,
type and almost regularly involves
the use of one or two unstressed
syllables, viz.:
h b TeMHue xpaMti,
CoBepuiaio SejiHLiH oSpflji;.
TaM >Kjiy h npeKpacHoii
flaMbi
Bxomy
B MepnaHHH KpacHBix jiaMna,n...

Bryusov
adheres
to the same pattern
in:
Tê bli, rpflflymiie

ryHHbi,
Hto Tyneii HaBHCJin Has MnpoM ?
CjiBiniy Bani TonoT qyryHHBin
no eme HeoTKpbiTLiM naMnpaM...
This
is the pattern
poems. It has been
if it were German
of the German
romantic
dol'niki and the lyrical
said of Blok that he approached
Russian verse as
verse.22 Without
German
on
influence
denying
the
influence
of
his
one
that
on
Blok, especially
translations,
may say
the whole he achieved
what the French verslibristes demanded?the
of rhythm as the only matter of lyrical thought.
acceptance
Bryusov's
contributed
towards this to a certain
extent.
experiments
certainly
the Verlainean
once
Assessing
stage of poetry in France, Verhaeren
said that the mistake of the new poets was to stop half-way
in their
22V. Pyast, 'O pervom tome Bloka'
(op.cit., p. 228).
RUSSIAN
SYMBOLIST
VERSIFICATION
171
either one had to adopt the classical verse

aller droit au rythme et le prendre
faut-il
completely,
This is what Blok did. His
comme moelle unique de l'idee lyrique'.23
Their experi?
Bryusov,
merely experimented.
including
predecessors,
ments proved
most fruitful,
but it is only with Blok that the tonic
versification
becomes really organic in Russian poetry.
in his resistance
After Bryusov
had followed
to the vers
Verlaine
experiments.
In his view,
\ . . ou bien
in the experiments
of the verslibristes. On the
libre, he became involved
one hand, free verse was only a particular
case of the dol'niki and, as
to those who had recognised
the prin?
such, was already acceptable
On the other hand?especially
for Bryusov
ciple of tonic versification.
?the
vers libre was a metre used by Verhaeren.
Verhaeren's
influence
on the Russian poet cannot be underestimated.
the Belgian
Although
poet was not one of the most successful verslibristes, Bryusov considered
him the most perfect exponent
of the new rhythm:
. . . Verhaeren is a wonderful master of the word, he is undoubtedly
the
this
master
of'free
verse'.
He
raised
of
versification
to
greatest
type
heights
where even the most inspired of his contemporaries
have no power to
follow him. . . .24
And
thus
Verhaeren's
Bryusov
the
vers libre as a new
rhythm?
of the dol'niki. He
rhythm?completely
independent
The vers libre was for him
in both simultaneously.
approached
experimented
the indispensable
new medium
demanded
primarily
by the new
the new language
which alone could express the new sensi?
poetry,
bility:
[This new poetry] . . . finally frees the poet from the fetters of the 'laws
of versification'.
verse must be subordinated
to the vibra?
Contemporary
tions of the poet's soul and not to the count of syllables. Every line and not
[only] the whole poem must have its own metre, in accordance with what
it expresses. . . . The most perfect models of this new vers libre can be found
in the work of Verhaeren,
Viele-Griffin,
Evers, Dehmel. . . . The very
creation of the new free verse is primarily the result of the need for widen?
ing the sphere of verse, for putting into it more content than is possible
when it is merely a sonorous compilation.
The human soul needs verse far
more than hitherto, and that is why it changes its aspect and gives it the
of marking the slightest changes of mood, of reflecting every
opportunity
expression, every word, every shade of thought. . . ,25
Bryusov
paratively
in Russia
introduced
seldom.
to imitate
the vers libre to Russia, but he himself used it com?

Tri svidaniya (1895) is probably
the first attempt
the free verse of the French school:
HepHoe Mope tojiob KOJiuxaeTCH

Kan mHBoe HyftOBHine,
23 E. Verhaeren, Impressions,III, 2nd ed., Paris, 1928,
p. 155.
24 Bryusov in his review of Les villestentaculaires
(Vesy,3, 1904, p. 55),
25Bryusov, 'Otvet
g.Andreyevskomu' (Mir Iskusstva,1-6, i90i,p. 247).
THE
172
SLAVONIC
REVIEW
SjiecTKaivra
C npoxoftflnniMH
uianoneK,
KpaeHHx
TojiySeHbKHx niap(f)OB
BnojieTOB ApKO-cepeSpflHbix
}KHBeT, KOJiHxaeTCfl.
Kan xoponio HaM OTdoâ,
? bbicoko, bbicoko ?
OTKyâ-TO CBepxy
G T06010 CMOTpeTb TOJiny.
KpacHBafl paMa CBHâHHii !
3ajiHT naccam BJieKTpiraecKHM cbctom,
3ByKH OpKeCTpa flOHOCATCA.
Grapbie penn jiioSbh
K eepAU,y H3 cepAna BOCTopmeHHO npocflTCfl.
Mnjiafl, HeT, h He Jiry, roBopfl, hto jhoSjho a TeSfl.
of Bryusov's
vers libre are singularly
akin to those
work displays resistance
Verhaeren's
to the impair and
only 4 per cent of his verse is really impair, which is rather little for
the Belgian
free. Moreover
weakness
for
reputed
poet's
poetry
sonorous and very long words is well known; it can already be seen in
his titles:
tu-mul-tu-eu-ses.
He
hal-lu-ci-nees,
il-lu-soi-res,
sou-ve-rains,
an extraordinary
number
of syllables:
this gives the
accumulates
of weight to his verse and weakens
the notion of metre.
impression
The
characteristics
of Verhaeren.
when
he uses short-syllable
he quickens
the
contrast,
words,
his
and
are
of
the
con?
intensity
poems. Delivery
rhythm
dominating
vers libre. The rich use of alliteration
ditions of Verhaeren's
and asson?
ance makes his phrasing even heavier and thus reinforces
the rhythm.
By
he prefers sonorous rhymes. In comparison

to other
also uses relatively
few trisyllabic
metres.
He
Bryusov
symbolists,
the latter. The long line
especially
prefers the iamb and the trochee,
of him, as well as hyperdactylic
is also characteristic
rhymes.26
and assonance
give weight to his verse, and he has
Heavy alliteration
of too many sonorous
been accused
The pon?
frequently
rhymes.
of many of Bryusov's
derousness
reminiscent
of
poems is strikingly
This
is also why
Verhaeren's.
thus the
Bryusov was the first to use the vers libre and he established
basis of an entire trend in Russian
poetry, best represented
perhaps
All the symbolists
tried occasionally
to write in
by Mayakovsky.27
vers libre. Blok used it several times in his second volume of verse28 and
an extraordinarily
sometimes
produced
light effect:
? Cf. Kholod(1908).
27 Cf. M. Shtokmar, *0 stikhovoy sisteme Mayakovskogo' (L. I.
Timoveyev and L. M.
Polyak (eds.), Tvorchestvo
Mayakovskogo,Moscow, 1952, pp. 258 sqq.).
28 Cf. also Ya zhalobnoyrukoyszhimayusvoy kostyV. . ., V
pyVnyygorod nebesnyykuznets
prikatil..., Kogdavystoitena moyomputi...
RUSSIAN
SYMBOLIST
OHa npHiujia
VERSIFICATION
173
c Mopo3a,
PacKpacHeBniaacfl,
HanojiHHJia KOMHaTy
ApoMaTOM B03jj;yxa h jjyxoB,
3bohkhm tojiocom
M COBCeM, HeyBaJKHTeJIbHOH K 3aHHTHHM
BojiTOBHeii...
Balmont
was much
less successful.
In such lines as:
Il03a6HBHIHCL,
HaKJIOHHBHIHCL,
H He3pHM0 ot jjpyrax,
YAHBJieHHO
?
3arjiHHyTb.
9to ny tb,
Rim Toro, hto6 B0CC03AaTb
To, nero HaM b 3toh jkh3hh bhjiotb
30 CMepTH He BHâTb.
an external,
graphic likeness rather than a real likeness to
of Russian
was
vers libre. Balmont's
part in the renovation
prosody
him for failing to acquire 'the
rather insignificant.
Bryusov criticised
He himself tried to reach
broad manner of the poetry of Verhaeren'.29
manner'
'broad
succeeded
in ?amknutyye
Verhaeren's
and almost
he achieved
(1900-1),
Kon' bled (1903-4),

Slava tolpe
Parizh (1903),
(1903),
V skvere (1905) which are written either
ognya (1905),
or partly in vers libre.
Mir
Dukhi
(1904),
entirely
IV
metrical
of a well-defined
in the vers
The absence
composition
factors in symbolist
libre brought to the fore other essential structural
for metrical
division into periods and
disregard
poetry. The growing
for
the
need
forms
of rhythmico-syntactic
various
intensified
strophes
lines being usually connected
in some way with
syntactic
parallelism,
of stresses. The vers libre consisting
of lines linked into
the distribution
in length
and structure,
a
demanded
varying
groups
rhythmical
at
the
end
of
articulation
line
or
marked
every
syntactic
strophic
of rhyme.
the more so in view of the weakening
Thus the
group,
or symmetry
become
various forms of parallelism
especially
impor?
of free verse. They are characteristic
tant with the appearance
how?
ever of all symbolist
poetry.
This may be partly explained
of folkby the growing
popularity
a
to
similar
and
the
secure
effect?naive
at the
and
tendency
poetry
29 Bryusov, 'K. D. Balmont5 (Mir Iskusstva,7-12, 1903, pp. 35-36).
THE
174
SLAVONIC
REVIEW
retained from their admir?

What the symbolists
emphatic.
its
devices.
On the
was
for popular
mainly
repetitive
poetry
aesthetics
all its forms?suited
other hand, repetition?in
symbolist
the
and enabled
for 'musicality'
well: it met the demand
extremely
The
with
the
reader
his
obsession
to
to
imagery.
simplest
poet
impart
could be driven home to the
by dint of constant
images,
repetition,
reader, and even more often to the listener, to the extent of becoming
a magic formula.
This was one of the simplest
means of producing
declared
to be one of the prin?
effect which Mallarme
that hypnotic
same
time
ation
cipal aims of poetry. Thus the image, from being purely decorative
itself already con?
an attribute
of action, and the repetition
becomes
of the lyrical
tains the intense
and brilliantly
concise
expression
of folk-poetry.
had already made
Baudelaire
tition; this is even more frequently
refrains
of repe?
great use of the technique
and subsequently
used by Verlaine;
the outstanding
feature of all French
become
constructions
parallel
a somewhat
Maeterlinck
and?to
lesser
symbolist
poets, including
The same applies
to the Russian
degree?Verhaeren.
symbolists:
devices
are the most characteristic
trait of the style of
repetitive
and Blok, the ratio of parallelisms
Balmont,
Bryusov,
Sologub,
being
1:3 in the case of Bryusov and Blok, and 1:2! m the
approximately
These devices have been studied and
case of Balmont
and Sologub.30
classified
here
elsewhere;31
only
a few
characteristic
types
will
be
mentioned.
most
The
are
those
common
of parallelism
examples
within
of rhythmico-syntactic
verse and within
parallelism
the strophe.
both by French
the
in particular,
is widely used
Internal
epanaphora,
Verlaine's
and Russian symbolists.
example is well known:
Dans
Deux
Dans
Deux
Bryusov
and Sologub
B ee i\na3a
le vieux parc solitaire et glace,

formes ont tout a Pheure passe . . .
le vieux parc solitaire et glace,
spectres ont evoque le passe . . .
build
many
3e?JieHbie
a
b nepBbiii pa3,
B3i\JiAHyji
B ee rjia3a 3eJieHbie,
Korâ Ham cbct norac.
poems on the same principle,

*
,3,Ba enyTHHKa cjryeatable,
B MOjraaHHH 6e3 omen,
viz.:
flBa cnyTHHKa ejiynanHHe,

Mbi CTajiH 6jih3kh c Hen...
(Bryusov)
Ha Onjie ftajieKOii h npeKpacHOH

BCA JIIoSOBB H BCA AyHia MOA.
Ha Onjie ftajieKon h npeKpacHOH
30 Cf. V. Zhirmunsky, Kompozitsiyaliricheskichstikhotvoreniy,
St Petersburg, 1921, foot?
31
note p. 105.
Zhirmunsky, op. cit., passim.
RUSSIAN
SYMBOLIST
VERSIFICATION
175
IlecHeH cjia^KorjiacHOH h corjiacHofi

GnaBHT Bee 6jiameHCTBa Shthh...
(Sologub)
One aspect of extended
in Russian verse?the
amoebic
epanaphora
or chainwise
almost
be
to
ascribed
composition?can
certainly
foreign
This device,
influence.
in which the alternate
of a stanza
periods
are linked both by an obvious
and by an internal
one,
epanaphora
is a common
and very popular
trait of English
and German
folk?
due to the popular
tradition
of a song being
songs, and is probably
executed
two
voices
or
two
of
voices.
While amoebic
com?
by
groups
can also be found in Russian
position
folk-songs,
though to a lesser
did not
degree than in the West, it seems that the Russian symbolists
to reproduce
the traditional
attempt
style, but were influ?
popular
enced
rather
The
and Verlaine.
Rossetti,
Maeterlinck,
by Heine,
Western
composition
penetrated
poetry in the period of
when popular
romanticism,
imitated,
songs began to be deliberately
and became very popular with the French symbolists.
Maeterlinck's
famous poem:
chainwise
Et s'il revenait un jour

Que faut-il lui dire?
?Dites-lui
qu'on l'attendit
Jusqu'a s'en mourir. . . .
as well as several
of his 'Twelve
in
Songs' were many times translated
and undoubtedly
influenced
some original verse. An inter?
in Vesy on the occasion
of Ghulesting review by Bryusov appeared
kov's translation
of the 'Twelve Songs'. Criticising
Chulkov's
attempt
to render mainly
Maeterlinck's
claimed
that the
imagery,
Bryusov
Russia32
character
of the
from the movement

of the verse,
'Songs' derived
and not its imagery.
He especially
drew attention
which Chulkov
failed to render.33 His own trans?
lations
the characteristic
of Maeterlinck's
preserved
parallelism
How
conscious
'Songs'.
Bryusov was of the structure of Maeterlinck's
verse is best seen in his poem written 'in the manner'
of the Belgian
from its structure
to the parallelisms
poet:
CeMb cecTep Ha ceMnSpycHoii
JKâjiH cbohx meHHxoB.
Gaume
CeMb cecTep Ha ceMHSpycnoii

3acjiyniajiH
inyM niaroB.
Gannie
32 In 1904 appeared the first volume of a translation of Maeterlinck's collected works

by
Sablin; in 1905 a translation of the same was published by Pirozhkov; Chulkov's trans?
lation of the 'Twelve Songs' also appeared in the same year; several translations of single
by Bryusov and others appeared in the symbolist press before and after 1904.
poems
33 Bryusov,
'Fialki v tigele' (Vesy,7, 1905, pp. 9-17).
THE
176
SLAVONIC
REVIEW
M o#Ha, ynaB, yMepjia ot cMymeHbA,

HT0 HCnOJIHHJICACOH.
flpyran,
9to
ynaB, yMepjia
jim oh...
ot comhghha
TpeTbA, e^Ba pacTBopmracb

flBepn,
B CTpaxe, ynaB, yMepjia.
HeTBepTaA, npe^BHÂ cKopSb
Ce6A 3aAyniHJia caMa...
h noTepn,
Other examples
of chain wise composition
can be found in Bryusov's
Dva golosa, Kamenshchik, in his ballads Adam i Teva and Orfey i Yevridika, and in Blok's Vsyo li spokoyno v narode.
construction
The amoebic
can be motivated
not only by dialogue,
but also by psychological
is
often
the case with Heine.
as
parallelism,
can
also
be
in
Verlaine's
La bonne
found, among
others,
Examples
chanson: La lune blanche, and more typical
perhaps:
Avant que tu ne t'en ailles,

Pale etoile du matin,
?Mille
cailles
Ghantent, chantent dans le thym.
Tourne devers le poete,
Dont les yeux sont pleins d'amour;
?L'alouette
Monte au ciel avec le jour. . . .
translation
Sologub's
same structure:
of this poem
is not very effective,
but retains
noKa SjieCTHT TBOH 6jie#HbIH ahck,

3Be3,n;a Ha He6ocKjiOHe,
? H muran
nncK,
H BOJIHbl 6jiar0B0HHH !
Bpocb Ha noaTa, b *n>nx onax
OrHH jiioSbh 3ap#ejra,
? B jrHeBHbix
jiynax
Bot
The same device
maBopoHKa
is frequently
OHa OTâjiacb
OHa nejiOBajia
? KaK
? Kan
Tpejin...
used by Balmont:
6e3 ynpena.
6e3 cjiob.
TeMHoe Mope rjrySoKO.
flbimaT Kpan oSjiaKOB.
OHa He TBep^HJia : He Haô !

OTBeTOB OHa He JKâjia.
? KaK cuaôcTHo ahhiht
npoxjia.ua,
? KaK TaeT
BenepHan Mrjia...
the
RUSSIAN
The
chainwise
form
in France
SYMBOLIST
VERSIFICATION
177
from the Malay

and was
originated
'pantum'
the
romantic
and Germany
during
period.
popularised
In their effort to revive mediaeval
forms of poetry, the symbolists
also paid some attention
to the epiphoric
of poems. There
structure
are several examples
of coda (Abgesang)3*, but the most popular form
of epiphoric
refrain?so
structure?the
used by the prewidely
in
is
rather
rare
Russian
and
Maeterlinck,
Raphaelites
poetry. The
did not develop this compositional

device.35
the
used
and
most
Certainly
constantly
perhaps the most charac?
teristic repetitive
of the
device of symbolist
poetry was the symmetry
first and last lines of either the stanza or the whole poem. Examples
are already numerous
in Les fleurs du mal.36 Several variations
occur in
Gustave
and Jules
In
Verlaine,
Maeterlinck,
Kahn,
Laforgue.37
the so-called
kol'tso (epanalepsis
or anadiplosis)
is the most
Russia,
symbolists
of 19th-century
structure
compositional
lyrical
poetry,
the form which
encloses
a whole poem and not only a
especially
stanza.
The device,
with all its variants,
is also a favourite
with
Russian
the kol'tso originates
not only from
symbolists.
Historically,
popular
popular
amples
but also from ballad.

the
poetry,
Significantly,
of this form in Russia are all described
as 'romance'
first
ex?
or pesnya
all share in pro?
A. Tolstoy,
and Grigor'yev
Fet, Polonsky,
the
but
in
it
is
the
that we
genre,
moting
only
poetry of the symbolists
find a completely
free use of the kol'tso, unqualified
words
like
by
'romance'
or 'song'.
French
in this case can hardly
influence
be
denied if one notes that the German
romantics
used the form very
(song).
the structure
is still limited to parti?
rarely. More usual in English,
cular, isolated cases, but in the French poetry of the latter half of the
19th century it is widely resorted to.
The
various
forms of the kol'tso are so numerous

in Russian
sym?
that
all
evade
at
classification.
poetry
they
attempts
Among the
most frequent
are the kol'tso of a stanza,
with an exact or merely
In
the
of
kol'tso
the
whole
partial repetition.38
poem, either the first
and the last stanzas may be identical
the
or only
first and last lines.39
contrasted
as in Blok's 0 doblestiyakh or
They can also be deliberately
in Noch', ulitsa, fonar' . . ., and in Balmont's
0 Khristos or Ad, infinitum.
bolist
34 Viz. Bryusov's sonnet Tsvetyronyayutrobkolepestki,and Balmont's

Morskayapena and
Spi, moyapechal'naya...
35 Zinaida Hippius's Pesnyais the only known original
example of amoebic refrain, in
the purely song sense, in modern Russian poetry. The second example, Balmont's Gornyy
korol'is a translation from the Dutch and represents a typical ballad in the spirit of popular
poetry (cf. Zhirmunsky, op. cit, p. 60).
36 Cf. Le balcon,Reversibilite,Virreparable,Moestaet errabunda,
Hymne.
37 Cf. Verlaine's Dans Vinterminable
ennuide la plaine . . ., Je ne sais pourquoi,Charleroi,
A Poor YoungShepherd,Impression
soir
du
fausse, Crepuscule
mystique,N'est cepas? . . . Kahn's
File a tonrouet,Laforgue's Le brave,braveautomne,etc.
38 Viz. Balmont's Vyumryote,steblitrav ..., Sologub's No nesmeyuyavstat'i skazat'...
39 Cf. Balmont's
Vetergorimorey.
THE
178
Several
variations
volume
of verse,40
of
SLAVONIC
this
device
in Balmont,
th
jnoSnjia
??
as in Bryusov41
and
are
a
devices
constant
repetitive
H He cnaji, ? h 3Byqajio
as well
3a peKofi,
pbnjajio
TpeneTajio,
Ha#o mhoh...
occur
frequently
in
Blok's
first
viz.:
B xpaMe Bee ? Kan npe^Kê 6bijio.

CjIBIHieH THXHH B3MaX KaftHJI.
?fl CMeHJTCH,H HiyTHJI.
?HeyjKejin
REVIEW
B xpaMe 6y#eT Tan, nan 6hjio.

CjIHHieH THXHH 3B0H Ka#HJI.
?A HeBepHHH ! TH HiyTHJI
?rope
in
Sologub,
feature:
! rope
of whose
! H JiioGnjia .?
technique
all
A pycajma
cMenjiacb
3a penoH.
HeT, He th H3,n;eBajiacb
Ha,a;o mhoh.
There
is a tremendous
can be endlessly
multiplied.
Examples
The repeated
can have one or more
stanzas
of variation.
amount
or a contrasting
common
lines, either in a symmetrical
They
position.
or
can coincide
only partly?in
completely
rhymes, or phonetically,
content of a poem.
to the kol'tso, the use of the chain structure as a method
poem is rather rare. It occurs in Baude?
running
through a complete
in
the same movement
laire's Harmonie du soir, and Bryusov attempted
can also be used
his Opyty. The compositional
styk, or epanastrophe,
or in the thematic
In contrast
in order to link only one of the periods of a stanza, as in Balmont's

Vdali ot zcmli and Sologub's
Byl shirokiy put'. In mediaeval
poetry and
is frequently
used in every line of a
in Old French
epanastrophe
imitation
of the popular songs accounts
poem. The French symbolists'
for the partial revival of this form in modern poetry. A slightly differ?
ent form of styk may be found in Russian popular poetry, where each
the ending
of the preceding
line repeats
second
line; this
initially
is linked with the characteristically
Russian
structure
superimposed
(povtoreniye s narastaniyem).
repetition
As has been already stated, all the forms of lyrical repetition
are a
feature of the symbolist
of
its
romantic
distinctive
style, especially
In the 18th century
did not play
trend.
compositional
parallelisms
role. Likewise
the
an important
Pushkin and his Pleiade considered
as having a logical significance,
while the symbolist
word primarily
emotional
has
colouring.
Zhirmunsky
on
this
in
of
the
number
Pushkin
subject:
supplied
is
with
a
in
of
total
out
of
43
compositional
repetitions
558,
poems
12 out of 222, in Lermontov
27 out of 377. What is more
Baratynsky
from our point of view, in Tyutchev
is
whose influence
significant
considered
in Russian
by some critics as the most important
sym40 Cf. Ty otkhodish'v sumrakalyy..., Noch' na novyygod.
41 Cf. U zemli, Sladostrastiye,Kakpoyduya po bul'vam. . .
school
stressed
us with
its inherent
statistics
RUSSIAN
SYMBOLIST
VERSIFICATION
179
bolist poetry?the
figure is only 17 out of 277, i.e. about 1 in 16. But
of poems making
some use of repetitions
with Fet the number
is
as we approach
the symbolists.
already
115, and the ratio increases
which the Russian
It seems that the attention
symbolists
paid to all
derives from three sources, viz. the Russian late
forms of parallelism
Heine
and the German
romantics
romantics
Solov'yov),
(including
to a great extent, the French sym?
in some degree, and undoubtedly,
and Maeterlinck.
The French
Baudelaire,
Verlaine,
bolists, especially
of
for
the
revival
fixed
such
were certainly
responsible
poetical forms
of
Romance
whose
as
origin
structure
the
rondeau,
is determined
rondel,
triolet,
and
Persian
On the other
by repetitions.
gazelle,
of the vers libre and the preparatory
hand, the growing
popularity
a well-defined
demanded
vers libere, which came from France,
com?
In
free
verse42
the
structure.
18th-century
syllabo-tonic
positional
of
order
was
achieved
the
of
the
by
rhythmical
uniformity
impression
and
the
accented
the
unaccented
basic rhythmical
movement,
syl?
and the movement
was divided,
as it were, into
lables alternating,
blank
waves of different length. In the rhymeless
separate rhythmical
line
of
or
were
the
limits
marked
verse,
every
by a
strophic
group
in
The latter had to be even stronger
the vers
articulation.
syntactic
in the number of stresses is also added to the
libre, in which hesitation
usual
alternation
The
of the number
of syllables
movement
of
rhythmical
rises to a
by the accent dHmpulsion, which
is thus strictly connected
recedes.
Rhythm
syntactic
parallelism
groups, and rhythmical
dol'niki.
basic
between
stresses
in the
the vers libre is provided

certain
and then
pitch
with the distribution
of
to syntactic
corresponds
parallelism.
V
in poetry is closely linked with the ques?
structure
Compositional
The instrumentation
of poetical
tion of euphonic
organization.
of the interrelation
of different laws of
speech is indeed the outcome
of which those
harmony,
two of the most important.
of rhythm and compositional

structure
are
The third vital law of harmony?if
we are
to number
them quite arbitrarily?is
of
represented
by a group
normal euphonic
visible
media, or what may be termed the external,
media
of harmony:
etc. Although
alliteration,
assonance,
rhyme,
these obvious
of harmony
are a constant
manifestations
preoccu?
it is understandable
with their
that, consistent
pation of all poetry,
the symbolist
attention
to them. The
aesthetics,
poets paid particular
42 In the 18th century, the usual syllabo-tonic rhymed verse was called free,
provided the
number of feet in the line changed and the rhyme was ordered in the stanza. Krylov's
fables, comic poems, and comedies in verse were written in such free iambs.
THE
l80
SLAVONIC
REVIEW
to approximate
poetry to the art of music was
tendency
symbolist
bound to affect their technique.
We shall not study here the verbal instrumentation
proper to the
note the extensive
use
individual
symbolist
poets and shall merely
of euphonic
devices made both by the French and the Russian poets.
the other
trends can be seen: one towards
Two general
vocalism,
i.e.
assonance
and
the
simultaneous
use
of
towards
orchestration,
alliteration
Verlaine
modern
in poetry the equivalent

of orchestral
to reproduce
music.
in
of
the
of
was the supreme
use
vowel-sounds
exponent
whereas
had been the first to
French
Baudelaire
poetry,
and alliteration
in order to produce
extensive
use of assonance
Mallarme
drew attention
to euphonic
a composite
form
impression.
the poet must discover
of thought:
as the best expression
and bring
affinities which exist between
sound and thought;
out the mysterious
as a musical phrase, as a small orchestra,
verse is to be approached
music.43 The younger
a kind of chamber
more precise:
genera tiohls
and assonance
to the dignity of a system. Rim?
it raises alliteration
make
of childhood
baud's famous sonnet on vowels?a
simple reminiscence
in motion an endless controversy
on the tonality of vowels, on
?sets
between
sound and the impression
it conveys.
In all
the associations
Rene Ghil draws up a table of vowels
and some con?
seriousness,
their respective
use. Poetry becomes
for him a
indicating
and
claims
that
of
he
can
be
achieved
science,
precision
expression
a
of
scientific
the
of
The
by
magic
application
onomatopoeia.
of
alliteration
and
numerous
in
French
assonance
examples
sym?
sonants,
statements
which sup?
verse, as well as the endless theoretical
extensive
of
this
use
can
leave
no
doubt that
media,
port
euphonic
these represent something
more than a traditional
poetic device.
The Russian
were just as sound-conscious
as their
symbolists
French predecessors.
earlier
the
Russian
Obviously,
poets had also
the secret of alliteration
known
and vowel harmony
(and made a
use
of
But
discreet
while Gogol' could only vaguely
them).
say that
of sounds was 'not such an empty phrase as those who are
harmony
bolist
with poetry think',44 Balmont

the sounds of
analysed
in order to discover
a direct link between
the
language
elements
of speech and the significance
of words, and to
phonetic
reveal
the mythopoetic
force of individual
the dormant
words,
of
the
music
of
sound-material,
energy
magical
speech.45 Advancing
a step further, Bely tried to ascribe to sounds a meaning
independent
of words; he tried to free the 'latent energy'
of the usual significance
of words from the bonds of accepted
In Glossolaliya he
terminology.
43 Cf. 'Crisedevers' (Divagations).
44 Cf. L. P. Yakubinsky, 'O zvukakh stikhotvornogo
yazyka' (Poetika,Petrograd, 1919,
p. 40).
46 Cf. Poeziya,kakvolshebstvo,
passim.
unacquainted
the Russian
RUSSIAN
strove
to recreate
symbolists,
and revealed
the relation
at one time
how
SYMBOLIST
of sound
or another,
highly
VERSIFICATION
developed
to movement.
pronounced
was their
l8l
All the Russian
themselves
emotional
on music,
to
attitude
sound.
A cursory
review of the practice of the Russian poets would reveal

characteristic
and his awareness
vocalism
of the fact that
Bryusov's
the judicious
distribution
of a vowel within a verse is more important
than merely
its use (hence instances
of repetition
and symmetry);
Blok's
assonances
which
his verse with such remarkable
endow
in
of both vowels and consonants,
fluidity;
Bely's careful disposition
a deliberate
at orchestration.
Alliteration
is used to an un?
attempt
Blok insistently
extent.
certain
letters without
precedented
exploits
ever
of harmony;
Bely can be either
or
sustained
allitera?
florid;
extraordinarily
expressive
unpleasantly
tion in Bryusov is rare, and when it occurs it is usually a tour deforce
in the tradition
of Balmont's
in its constant
school, which,
pursuit
of acoustic
sometimes
exceeded
of har?
the bounds
expressiveness,
There are very few poems of Balmont's
which do not bear
mony.
visible
traces of tonal organisation,
we should
but perhaps
quote
to
show
how
the
sound-value
of a
Sologub
indiscriminately
pure
hardly
letter
could
transgressing
be exploited
Jlnjia,
the limits
by the symbolists:
jiHJia, jiHJia, Kaâjia
,D,Ba TejibHO-ajine CTeKJia.

Bejieii jinjieft, ajiee Jiajia
Bena
Snjia
th h ajia...
It is precisely this use of alliteration

solely for the sake of its sound that
shows at its most extreme
the difference
the practice
between
of
verbal instrumentation
The
by earlier poets and by the symbolists.
the intensity
of lyrical feeling primarily
symbolists
expressed
through
This was not a mere accompaniment;
the words
sound-organisation.
an entirely
individual
character
their euphonic
acquired
through
and these were carefully
stressed by their distribution.
associations,
The symbolists
even strengthened
the power of sound-organisation
by
its sphere, and making the rhyme a particular
instance
of
enlarging
it. They
device
of poetic
in
heightened
every possible
technique
order that poets might be 'the true magi in the province
of the word'.
words were to obey their command,
like 'a mighty
Henceforth,
incantation'.46
The logical sense of the word could be obscured
and
overlaid
its
the
musical
of
recede
could
by
meaning;
clarity
imagery
to a secondary
in the choice of words was of less
plane; differentiation
All these qualities
importance.
gave way to the expressiveness
of melody,
to a vague sequence
sound, to a specific understanding
46 Bryusov in Opyty.
of
of
THE
l82
SLAVONIC
REVIEW
musical
which were to evoke a lyrical mood and emo?
impressions
tional sensibility.
was in fact the basic principle
Sound-organisation
of symbolist
poetry.
VI
claimed
that rhyme
The romantics
and after them the parnassians
was the essential element of French verse?that
as French words were
not composed
like Latin words, it was
of short and long syllables
almost
French prose from poetry.

rhyme alone which differentiated
the necessity
of rich rhymes.
But with the attack against the
traditional
metrical
system came also the attack against rhyme. The
been sown by Hugo and even by
seeds
had
revolutionary
already
it
but
was
and
Verlaine
Rimbaud
who first simplified
Chenier,
rhyme
and tried to replace
it by assonance.
Verlaine
did not condemn
he condemned
rhyme in general,
only the rigid rhyming
system. A
in the
few years later, the symbolists
had achieved
their revolution
Hence
field of rhyme. In the 1890's rich rhyme belonged

to 'parody'.47
A similar process of the decomposition
of traditional
rhyme
in Russia. In the 18th century and at the beginning
observed
can be
of the
traditional
to disrupt
19th there were several
sporadic
attempts
but in the field of unaccented
Kol'tsov,
rhyme (Derzhavin,
Nikitin),
vocalism
the majority
of poets demanded
not only acoustic but even
for
from the mid-1830's
the demand
graphic
precision.
Beginning
are no
is given up, and even acoustic
coincidence
graphic
rhymes
exact.
The movement
A.
with
longer
Tolstoy.
rigidly
develops
Yakubinsky
quotes a letter by the poet which shows him to be quite
of the attempts
made in France
unaware
(true, not yet very pro?
at that time), but protesting
nounced
of
already against the tyranny
regular
although
opposed
In practice,
is a
rhyme.48
Tolstoy
in
we find truncated
his
work.
rhymes
of traditional
only to the rigid exactitude
symbolists
struggle
cultivate
the imperfect
rhyme
cautious
innovator,
He is, on the whole,
rhyme, whereas the
deliberately,
as part of their
tradition.
against
takes up Tolstoy's
in the field of approximate
experiments
own
the rhyming
most
of
his
to renovate
rhyme, although
attempts
The
from
France.49
diffusion
of
system originate
rhymes by
imperfect
the end of the 19th century cannot be ascribed to the general slacken?
in
and Nadson
are conservative
ing of prosodic
Apukhtin
technique.
this respect, their use of banal rhymes preventing
them from experi?
Bryusov
mentation.
the symbolists,
and Zinaida
Balmont,
Among
Sologub,
are
the
new
is
manner
conservative;
Hippius
relatively
represented
chiefly by Bryusov and Blok.
47
de Gourmont, op. cit., p. 90.
48 Remy
L. P. Yakubinsky, 'O zvukakh stikhotvornogo yazyka' (Poetika,pp. 38-9).
49 Cf.
Zhirmunsky, Rifma,yeyoistoriyai teoriya,St Petersburg, 1923, p. 332, footnote 93.
RUSSIAN
SYMBOLIST
VERSIFICATION
183
for rich rhymes,

this
a certain
in Bryusov
predilection
Lunacharsky
leanings.
being often said to derive from his parnassian
teachers were the parnassians
is particularly
that Bryusov's
insistent
seems to be exaggerated,
This statement
and not the symbolists.50
in the ranks of the
unless one includes
and Verlaine
Baudelaire
Bryusov is much closer to these two than to any other
parnassians.
It seems that his
of Verhaeren.
French
poets, with the exception
We
find
and per?
was inherited
through Baudelaire
'parnassianism'
rather than as the result of direct influence.
haps even Verlaine,
in these two fore?
There are sufficient
traces of parnassian
technique
'brazen
to support this point. And Bryusov's
runners of symbolism
so-called
which are often rare and

his heavy,
rhymes,
polysyllabic
recherche, belong on the whole to his early poems, to the period when,
he was closely perusing
and Verlaine,
Baudelaire
having discovered
that there can be no verse without
insistence
their works.51 Verlaine's
on the
to a certain
extent;
Bryusov
rhyme52
may have influenced
how closely the Russian
other hand, we must remember
poet fol?
De la musique avant toute chose . . . Verlaine
lowed Verlaine's
dictum
sounds',
and suggestive
vagueness;
musicality,
by this melody,
understood
this more
an
non-musical
Bryusov,
poet,
essentially
it
for
all
the
for
in
to
addition
Verlaine,
things
literally:
implied
connected
with
the
it
meant
sound-organisation
Bryusov
everything
of poetry. Bryusov loved sounds in order to convey either a meaning
or an impression,
he loved them for their own
and, not infrequently,
in his rhymes. We have
sake. This predilection
can also be detected
impressed
his own testimony
to this effect:
. . . How strangely and how marvellously

foreign words sound, especially
as a rhyme! Is it possible you do not know the delight of verse as verse,
of the sounds alone, the imagery, the rhymes?
beyond its significance,
flpeMJieT CTOJinna, Kan caMKa MepTBoro CTpayca. Already the very
of a rhyme with the word CTpayca provokes a mysterious flut?
expectation
ter. I do not say anything?there
is also something else in poetry, there is
another poetry. But this and that, both of them, are enchanting.
. . .53
Twenty
years later,
Bryusov
still writes
in the same vein:
CaM ;a;jiHce6n jiioSjiio b CTHxax cbohx

GreHeHHe pn$M, nopoii HeoSbiHanHbix,
M ;o;jih ce6n nnniy ? He RJin ^pyrnx.
(i9J5)
50 Cf. Lunacharsky's preface to Bryusov's Izbrannyyesochineniya,Moscow, 1926.
51 In his later
poems they are often inspired by Verhaeren.
52 'La rime n'est
pas condamnable, mais seulement Tabus qu'on en fait. Rimez faiblement, assonez si vous voulez, mais rimez ou assonez, pas de vers sans cela.' Cf. 'Un mot sur
la rime' (Le Decadent,March, 1888).
53 Bryusov to Pertsov,
17 August 1895. Cf. P. P. Pertsov (ed.), Pis'ma V. T. Bryusova
k P. P. Pertsovu,i8g4~i8g6?k istoriirannegosimvolizma,Moscow, 1927, p. 36.
THE
184
SLAVONIC
REVIEW
inclination
towards rare rhymes is also linked with the sym?
of the cliche in general. The unexpected
avoidance
word which
strikes the reader is much more likely to provoke
a spell-binding
than the banal word. Mallarme
made a cult of
impression
always
the unexpected
word and felt horror at the cliche. In spite of the fact
that the French symbolists
relic,
regarded rare rhyme as a parnassian
often
tried
to
some
infuse
at the end of the line in
they
originality
order to secure a certain variety
and avoid the monotony
of hack?
The
bolists'
This tendency
at the same time the use of
neyed rhymes.
explains
rare rhyme, including
as well as the use of asso?
rhyme,
compound
nance. In Bryusov's
case, rich and rare rhymes suited his somewhat
bombastic
and solemn style.
The number of rare rhymes in Bryusov is much greater than in the
of his contemporaries
of the 1880's and 1890's, and some of
majority
the younger
so-called
this
poets?the
Bryusov
school?generalised
in rich and rare rhymes.
interest
to combine
tended
Bryusov
of words
not related
or logically,
and
categories
grammatically
this preference.
approximate
rhymes
{priblizitel'nyye
rifmy) favoured
their use. The number of truncated
Bryusov indeed developed
rhymes
in his work is such that they may be considered
the dominant
type.54
these had
Bryusov also set the fashion in compound
rhymes. Although
been
used
to a certain
extent
by earlier poets, the heavy

type?
second
element?became
character?
especially
istic of symbolist
poetry. In France they had been used by Baudelaire
and some later symbolists.
the possibilities
of wordBy enlarging
that
answered
Pushkin's
there
are
combinations,
Bryusov
complaint
too few rhymes in the Russian
renovated
language.
Bryusov
rhyme
those
with
a heavier
in customary
diverse
combinations
including
morphologically
He
was
in
followed
the new
whose
first
rhymes.
by Blok,
poems
manner is already apparent,
and by Kuzmin,
and Akhma?
Gumilyov,
who
use
the
new
tova,
rhymes quite freely.
by
was also responsible

for the introduction
of imperfect
Bryusov
or assonances
The
rhymes,
(netochnyye rifmy), into Russian
poetry.
of his predecessors
in an
had resulted
sporadic
attempts
merely
occasional
and exceptional
use of this type of rhyme.
Bryusov's
in this sphere were prompted
of the
experiments
by the example
French symbolists
to the assonances
who had returned
of Old French
The naturally
poetry.
longer Russian
rhyme lent itself to this even
better than the acoustically
French
In Russian
the
rhyme.
simple
assonances
were more sonorous.
in
uses
Already
1893 Bryusov
imper?
fect dactylic
much
rhymes
(Unyniye); a, few years later they become
more
frequent.
One
finds
combinations
of dactylic
rhymes
with
im-
54 Bryusov has about 400 truncated

rhymes, as compared with 180 in A. Tolstoy. Cf.
Zhirmunsky, op. cit., p. 326, footnote 70.
RUSSIAN
SYMBOLIST
VERSIFICATION
185
rhymes (Mesyats blednyy . . .), and even assonances

perfect masculine
or Tapomnyu vecher).
in feminine
rhymes (Utomlyonnyy, sonnyy vecher...
to different
in
assonances
rhymes belonging
Bryusov uses
especially
grammatical
groups, for instance 6poHeHOcn,eB: rpo3HHM, aHTHxpHCT :
of
in the correspondence
yTHXHeT, poflHHH : ycBoeHHOii. Deviations
final consonants:
with truncated
also include
consonants
rhymes
npnSHJi: MorjiH 6h, po^Hoe : BoeM, cepbiM : ropejio. Bryusov was also
the first to use imparisyllabic
(neravnoslozhnyye) rhymes. He began by
vowel is
of the unstressed
the dropping
words in which
rhyming
in the articulation
of the pre?
thanks to similarity
audible,
scarcely
sounds: 3apn : Mapnn, jKejiamni : TyMaHe, Tonojien : ajuiee.
ceding
This device is frequently
later used many similar rhymes.
and dactylic
applied in Tertia vigilia, where we can find hyperdactylic
6o?KecTBeHHaH :
combined,
e.g. ,o;eBCTBeHHHHa : jiecranna,
rhymes
in his use of im?
.ijeBCTBeHHa. Although
undoubtedly
very audacious
a
of his poems
them
limits
to
number
certain
perfect rhymes, Bryusov
Sologub
with the normal system of versi?

and avoids using them simultaneously
and a whole
Thus he has a series of poems with assonances55
fication.
in
constructed
on
the
consonantal
while
deviations,56
cycle
majority of
his poems there are no deviations
at all. It is in Blok's poems that the
rhyme ceases to be part of a particular
system of versifica?
imperfect
tion. It spreads to all his poems and appears
alongside
customary
a recognised
and normal method of rhyming.
based on French
in
the
field
of
Bryusov's
rhyme?partly
experiments
a
in
the
of
Russian
new
rhyme. But
history
example?began
period
thus becoming
rhyme,
the canonisation
of imperfect
rhyme
belongs
are rare
primarily
in Blok's
to Blok.
work, and the

1902, imperfect
rhymes
a
final con?
to
feminine
with
are
limited
truncated
rhymes
examples
sonant. From 1902 onwards,
of Bryusov and the
under the influence
other symbolists
at that time, a
with whom Blok became
acquainted
much
more varied
use of imperfect
can be
and general
rhymes
observed.
when Blok departs from the
They appear most frequently
usual syllabo-tonic
when he does not adhere to strict
versification,
Before
and also when he uses catachresis

to underline
of a poem. The second volume of Blok's poems is
devia?
in this respect.57 As far as consonantal
particularly
significant
tions are concerned,
the most frequent irregularities
occur in feminine
final consonant,
as in: rjiySn :
rhymes. Most of these have a truncated
strophic composition,
the irrational
mood
jiioShm, 3Be3,o;HHM : 6e3AHH, and this type becomes increasingly

popu?
lar. Assonances
to similar gram?
usually occur in rhymes belonging
matical categories,
viz., nanepTb : cnaTepTb, Kpenqe : Jierqe, 3aiiqHK :
55 Twenty-one poems in Puti ipereput'yaare based on the
principle of imperfect rhymes,
and in fifteen there are only isolated instances.
56 The group of poems Nagranitakhin Vsenapevy.
57 There are 114 examples of imperfect rhymes in this volume.
THE
186
SLAVONIC
REVIEW
less frequently?in
different
MaJibHHK, or?somewhat
morphological
viz.
CBeTeJi:
neneji.
The
number of irregular
Kynoji: cjiyinaji,
groups,
masculine
small, and these consist of assonances
rhymes is extremely
viz.
bhh3
: jihit. Blok also uses dactylic
asson?
proper,
#Bepi>: TeHb,
ances
in words belonging
to one morphological
usually
type, viz.
mojihtcji : kjiohhtch,
:
Besides
incor?
npopySbio
nocTyntio.
finally
in
Russian
assonance
Blok
also
makes
verse,
porating
great use of
either
the
final
or
the intermediate
consonance,
vowel,
disregarding
even if stressed.
The fact that rhyme was incorporated
in the
by the symbolists
of their poems is best seen in the use they make
sound-organisation
of internal
of these are especially
in
numerous
rhymes.
Examples
Blok and Bely, but they occur in one form or another in all the sym?
bolists. Every aspect of parallelism
may be found in the distribution
of rhymes.
Blok's spectacular
in the field of imperfect
innovations
rhyme be?
characteristic
of his two
long to the 1903-7 period and are especially
collections
of poems:
Nechayannaya radost' (1906) and ?emlya v snegu
there are cycles strikingly
rich in cases of irregular
(1908).
Though
Blok
mixes
them
with
In contrast
to
regular
rhymes.
consider
a
as
however,
Bryusov,
imparisyllabic
rhyme
of
in
versification.
the
third
of
But
volume
his
collected
special system
Blok returns to more traditional
forms in the field of both
poems,
metre and rhyme. This does not mean that he forsakes the imperfect
but the days of experimentation
are over, and he
rhyme altogether;
retains only some irregular
which
are
now
rhymes
part of his tech?
What
he
retains
from
his
however
is
nique.
previous
experiments
rhymes,58
he does
not
from our point of view. Out of a total of fifty-three

irre?
significant
a
have
final
truncated
This
consonant.
gular rhymes,
forty-four
type
of assonance
becomes
in Russian
after
generally
accepted
poetry
and Akhmatova
Bryusov and Blok. The work of Kuzmin,
Gumilyov,
abounds
in assonances,
their treatment
the
having already outgrown
acoustic
reasons
of
experimental
stage. Although
(the weakening
final consonants
in unstressed
positions)
may perhaps partly explain
the popularity
of this particular
of rhyme, this does not
irregularity
diminish
the significance
of the fact that assonance
in Russian poetry
was introduced
thanks to the example
of the French symbolists.
In
assonance
grafted much better than in France, because of the

characteristics
of the two languages.
In their revo?
phonetic
all classical
mood, intent on destroying
lutionary
rules, the French
had failed to see that the almost imperceptible
difference
symbolists
in the length
of syllables,
and especially
the usual acoustic
monoRussia,
divergent
syllabism
of French
58 Cf.
often
limitations
on the variety
imposed
and
maska
Puzyrizemli (1905)
Snezhnaya
(1907).
rhyme
RUSSIAN
of assonant
in Russian
SYMBOLIST
combinations.
The
187
sonority of word-endings
words favoured,
however,
in Russian,
rigid forms of
comparative
of polysyllabic
Yet even
of assonance.59
on the 'romances'
modelled
and the number
the development
assonance?those
scarce and usually
VERSIFICATION
occur
as metrical
explained
by the natural weakening
the acoustic differences
in consonants
rather
(ballads)?are
only. This again is
experiments
final vowels, while
of unstressed
are very prominent.
and results, the motives of the sym?

of their application
Regardless
bolists in breaking up traditional
rhyme were the same in France and
in Russia.
a
reaction
were
conscious
against everything
Partly they
their predecessors
had done; partly the symbolists
wanted to achieve
freedom
in
of
and
that
the
field
is why rhyme
versification,
complete
?like
and unfettered;
verse itself?had
to be mobile,
flexible,
and,
of all, their musical preoccupation
extended
perhaps most important
to the province
and rhyming
for the eye had thus to be
of rhyme,
in favour of rhyming
abandoned
for the ear. This is connected
with
the importance
the symbolists
attached
to the word in general
and
to its invocative,
an
almost magical
to
the
Such
quality.
approach
word explains,
on the one hand, why the same rhymes are often used
over and over again by the symbolist
the lumi?
sonority,
poets?the
on the other hand,
nosity of the tail-words
being so suggestive?and
to rhymes they use dissonances,
which attract atten?
why in addition
tion by their absurd position in relation to sense, the individual
myth
of word-rhyme
not having to be on the level of meaning
but of audi?
tory impression.
59 This is why
examples of assonances in masculine rhymes are scarce. Bryusov demon?
strated the richness of Russian rhyme in his poem Noch' (1915), where all types of rhyme,
from hyperdactylic to masculine, are used.

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University College London

French Influence on Russian Symbolist Versification

of the old forms

the vers libre; in Russia it revolutionised

was not entirely

free from French

among the older generation

to say that, with Blok, Russian

has been ack?

has not been put

the syllable itself was the unit of French verse, the

the unity of the verse was ensured by the necessary

the first, not only syllabic

his rhythms within the limits of a fixed

of poems that the Russian symbolist

In the two issues of the 'Russian Symbolists'

to assert the individuality

libke or libre, was free only in its intention

of the world cannot fail to create a new and

6 Bryusov, 'O knigakh' (Vesy,3, 1904, p.

to neglect such authoritative

The influence of Pushkin and of the elder symbolists strangely merged

line, the vers libere, was accepted

and even after

use. He boldly multiplied

Eejitie BCTajna cyrpoGu

is the nearest the dol'niki come to the

French vers libre and, in a

accents of the alexandrine),

words, the basic foot of such a verse was

b nenajin 6e3yMH0H h yMHpaio.

H 9to >KejiaHHe He 3Haio orayfla,

in the same category

Bely, Bobrov considered

on a triple dol'nik rhythm, and the

to stand side by side:

Cmotph, nana, CMOTpn

B MepnaHHH KpacHBix jiaMna,n...

to the same pattern

T^e bli, rpflflymiie

either one had to adopt the classical verse

vers libre as a new

the vers libre to Russia, but he himself used it com?

HepHoe Mope tojiob KOJiuxaeTCH

he prefers sonorous rhymes. In comparison

In such lines as:

Kon' bled (1903-4),

retained from their admir?

le vieux parc solitaire et glace,

poems on the same principle,

flBa cnyTHHKa ejiynanHHe,

Ha Onjie ftajieKOii h npeKpacHOH

IlecHeH cjia^KorjiacHOH h corjiacHofi

Et s'il revenait un jour

from the movement

CeMb cecTep Ha ceMHSpycnoii

32 In 1904 appeared the first volume of a translation of Maeterlinck's collected works

M o#Ha, ynaB, yMepjia ot cMymeHbA,

TpeTbA, e^Ba pacTBopmracb

Avant que tu ne t'en ailles,

is not very effective,

noKa SjieCTHT TBOH 6jie#HbIH ahck,

OHa He TBep^HJia : He Ha^o !

from the Malay