THE CONCEPTS OF “VERSE”, “METER” AND “RHYTHM” IN RUSSIAN VERSE THEORY

A definition is called descriptive (or theoretical) when it identifies the object by enumeration of its properties or functions. A constructive (or practical) definition is an explicit description of its arrangement. Russian verse theorists proposed several theoretical definitions of verse (as opposed to prose), which are not, however, convertible into a constructive definition (a list of formal differences between verse and prose). It means that today we are still not capable of developing an algorithm which would enable us to distinguish between prose and verse in general. Nevertheless, we can give both theoretical and constructive definitions of versification systems, verse meters, verse rhythm, and particular rhythmic types of individual meters.

This article discusses different approaches to the definition of verse and description of the relationships between meter and rhythm proposed by the scholars of Russian poetry. Observations on the history of verse theory help the author to develop a constructive definition of the concept of “meter” as a system of permissions and prohibitions that govern the distribution of word boundaries and word stresses in a verse line. The article also proposes constructive definitions for the versification systems used in Russian poetry (such as syllabic-accentual verse, logaoedic verse, dolniks and taktoviks, and pure accentual verse).