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A hexameter is what? Hexameter in Russian poetry

The versification can be called an entire science, which has its own laws and rules developed over the millennia of the existence of poetry. And in this article we will talk about one of the oldest verse sizes - a hexameter.

What is a hexameter in the literature?

A hexameter is the most ancient form of verse, known since antiquity. This is a 6-foot dactylic meter with a caesura after the 7th syllable and a shortened ending by one syllable. The hexameter was the most common meter in ancient poetry, it was they who wrote the Odyssey and the Iliad. That is why the hexameter is also called epic and heroic verse.

History

The hexameter is a metric verse that appeared around the 8th century BC. E. In ancient Greece. Scientists do not fully know how this size arose. There is an assumption about the borrowed character of the hexameter. According to the most popular opinion, this meter arose under the influence of Hittite and Hurrian poems. Initially, verses, composed according to the laws of the hexameter, were not recorded, but were transmitted from mouth to mouth.

According to myths, this form of the verse was created by the ancient Greek god Apollo, and the daughter of the god of Temon, the Delphian pythia, spread her over the earth. Therefore, it is not surprising that at first the hexameter was used only in sacred tests, for example, when making speeches of oracles and religious hymns. Often such poems were uttered to the accompaniment of musical instruments.

Much later the hexameter passed into heroic poetry and other types of verse. And his first written example became the most famous works of Homer - "Odyssey" and "Iliad", the writing of which dates from about 9-8 centuries BC. E. In these texts the hexameter appears in its classical form. Therefore, scientists do not have the opportunity to trace the formation of this form of versification, the first written monument is a sample of a completed and fully developed meter.

As for Roman poetry, there the hexameter was first introduced by Quintus Ennius. In general, by its nature this poetic form is suitable for languages such as Latin and Ancient Greek, where the longitudes of vowels were phonological. To date, this size is not used in classical form, it is only imitated and artificially recreated.

Hexameter: examples of verses and their structure

The heroic antique hexameter is a 6-foot verse with two variants of filling the feet. A strong place is called arsis, it can only be a long syllable. A weak place is called a thesis - it can be either a long or a short syllable. The main thing is that the principle of quantitativeness should be observed, that is, equal quantitative. In this case, the last syllable can be any and is a sign of the end of the poem. The scheme of the hexameter is as follows: _UU | _UU | _UU | _UU | _UU | _X

Given that each foot can be replaced by a spondee, we can conclude that there are 32 possibilities to realize such a verse. Classic 17-complex will sound like this: Quādrupedānte putrēm sonitū quatit ūngula cāmpūm ...

We are compelled to give examples in Latin, since Russian simply does not have the opportunity to write poetry with a classical hexameter because of the lack of long and short vowels.

Caesura

So, if you ever get into the test job "explain the terms" hexameter "and" caesura ", then how to answer the first part of it - you know, but what about the second?

Caesar is called a word-break (a kind of pause), which repeats itself monotonously throughout the poem. The parts that are obtained after separation by caesura are called hemistichs.

The role of such pauses in a hexameter is great because of the symmetry of the rhythmic size. And, for example, for syllabic caesura do not play an important role for the perception of the verse. In the sizes of the same metric (recitative, with a fixed rhythm), pauses are necessary, since without them it is impossible to catch a monorhythmic long line by ear.

Nevertheless, the hexameter was first pronounced without pauses. Examples of sacred-type poems are proof of this. And later, with the development of individual creativity, the poetic system evolved. Completely understand the meaning of caesura can only bear the language of the original, on which the ancient works were written.

Thus, a hexameter is a poetic dimension consisting of successively arranged three-lobed parts, the beginning and the end of which are marked by pauses. Typically, these poems are divided into 2-3 fragments.

What is used for?

As you know, poetic dimensions have their own semantic feature, according to which they are applied. A hexameter is, first and foremost, a great tool for creating an image and further revealing it.

Experienced poets, alternating pauses, could achieve a very high artistic effect from the point of view of imagery. Even more, this effect can be strengthened by replacing the usual stanza with sponge.

As a result, the classical size was used to describe the animated action, the one that had a quick character. A spondee was inserted when there was a need for solemnity, deceleration and significance.

Hexameter in tonic

However, there are languages in which the longitude of vowels does not have any phonological value, for example German, Russian, etc. In such languages, the hexameter was recreated artificially in order to convey the size of the Latin classics and ancient Greek works.

Such an artificial hexameter is usually a poem with 6 shock consonants and 2, and sometimes even one, unstressed. Thus, in the syllabo-tonic system of versification, it looks like a 6-foot dactyl, which can be replaced by a horei. Also this scheme is called the 6-foot dactylo-trochaic dolnik. Caesar thus remains in the middle of the stanza.

Russian hexameter

As mentioned above, in Russian this size is artificially recreated. It has 18 shares, the original same antique - 24 shares.

The hexameter in the Russian language obeys the rules of ordinary three-syllable sizes, while the stressed syllables can be replaced by unstressed ones, and vice versa. Usually it has the following scheme:

_UU | _UU | _UU || _UU | _UU | _U, where || Is the designation of caesura.

He became the first in the Russian versification of the size of the shares of the hexameter. Poems written on this scheme, first appeared in the "Grammar" M. Smotrytsky in 1619. However, these were just boring, since long and short syllables were set arbitrarily, and outwardly the verse resembled the alternation of dactyls with sponges. The first stable example of a hexameter is the product of the Swede Sparvenfeld, written in 1704.

Trediakovsky

However, only Trediakovsky was the first to approve the norm for a hexameter - a thirteen-syllable. He outlined this idea in his work "A New and Brief Method for the Composition of the Russian Verse." The first examples of the new size the poet gave in the collection "Argenida": "The First Phoebus, they say, fornication with Venus Mars / Could see: this god sees everything that happens, the first ...".

A hexameter, examples of which can be found in other works of Trediakovsky, this kind became classical for Russian literature.

But the work on the size did not stop there, Lomonosov continued. He did not change anything, but gave a theoretical justification for the work of Trediakovsky. It is also significant that these investigations helped Lomonosov in his work and over the syllabo-tonic system, which became the basis for Russian poetry.

Homer's translations

A hexameter is not the most popular system in Russian poetry. The only really significant and great example of it is the translation of Homeric poems, which were made by N. Gnedich and V. Zhukovsky.

The most persevering over the translation of the Iliad was Gnedich - he twice described a sample of the ancient Greek classics as prose and once in verse. The last attempt (1787) is the most significant, since for her the poet had to continue considerable work on converting the hexameter and adapting it to the Russian language. Although he initially tried to translate Alexandrine verse, which he spent 6 years, but was disappointed in the result, he destroyed all his works and began anew, already using only a hexameter.

Thanks to such efforts Gnedich managed to create a better translation of the poem of Homer, which to this day is considered unsurpassed. Here is a short excerpt from it: "Having died, Festorides resided; And from the host was raised / powerful hero, the vastly powerful King Agamemnon ... ". Written by a hexameter in the original, the "Iliad" was thus recreated in the same rhythm in Russian.

It's hard to believe, but the first examples of translation were met with negative feedback, and Gnedich had to defend the chosen verse size.

19th century

Work on translations of Homer continued Zhukovsky, introducing the Russian reader "Odyssey." He also owns an excellent adaptation of the "War of Mice and Frogs," in which a hexameter was also taken as a poetic basis. Examples from the works: "Muza, tell me about that experienced husband, who / Traveling a long time since the day when Saint Ilium ruined them ..." (Odyssey); "Listen: I'll tell you, friends, about mice and frogs." / Tale is a lie, and the song is true, they tell us; But in this ... "(" War ").

Pushkin, Lermontov, Fet and many other poets of the 19th century also applied to the hexameter. However interest to it gradually ceases. In the 20th century this verse size was again revived in the works of Vyach. Ivanov, Balmont, Shengeli, Nabokov.

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