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?
Hexameter is called the oldest 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
A hexameter is a metric verse that aroseapproximately in 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 verse was createdthe ancient Greek god Apollo, and spread it over the land the daughter of the god Femonoy, the Delphian pythia. 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 heroicpoetry and other kinds of verse. And his first written example was the 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 is a hexameterwas 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 of phonological significance. 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 a6-stop verse with two options for filling the feet. A strong place is called arsis, they can only have a long syllable. A weak place is called a thesis - it can be either a long or a short syllable. The main thing is to observe the principle of quantitative, 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 stop can be replacedspondee, 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 forced 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?
Caesarea 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 the hexameter is great because ofsymmetry of 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 string.
Nevertheless, it is initially pronounced without pauseshexameter. Examples of sacred-type poems are a confirmation 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 poeticsize, consisting of sequentially arranged three-lobed parts, the beginning and 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 ownsemantic feature, according to which and apply. 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 in terms 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 a lively action, something that had a rapid 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 the vowels is nothas some 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 usuallyis a poem with 6 percussion 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. This scheme is also 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.
A hexameter in the Russian language is subject to the rules of ordinary three-fold sizes, while the stressed syllables can be replaced by unstressed, and vice versa. Usually it has the following scheme:
_UU | _UU | _UU || _UU | _UU | _U, where || - This is the designation of caesura.
He became the first in Russian versification the size ofshare hexameter. Poems written according to this scheme first appeared in the "Grammar" by M. Smotritsky in 1619. However, these were still only rough sketches, since long and short syllables were set arbitrarily, and the external verse resembled the alternation of dactyls with spondies. The first steady example of a hexameter is considered to be the work of Swede Sparvenfeld, written in 1704.
Trediakovsky
However, only Trediakovsky was the first to approve the norm.for hexameter - thirteen syllable. He expressed this idea in his work “A New and Short Way to the Composition of Russian Verse”. The first examples of the size of the poet gave in the collection "Argenida": "The first Phoebus, they say, fornication with the Venus of Mars / I could see: this god is watching everything that happens, the first ...".
Hexameter, examples of which can be found in other works by Trediakovsky, of this type has become a classic for Russian literature.
But work on the size didn't stop there,Lomonosov continued it. He did not change anything, but he gave a theoretical justification for the work of Trediakovsky. It is also significant that these studies helped Lomonosov in his work on the syllabic-tonic system, which became the basis for Russian poetry.
Homer Translations
Hexameter is not the most popular system in Russian poetry. The only really significant and large example of it is the translation of Homer's poems, which was done by N. Gnedich and V. Zhukovsky.
Hardest work on the translation of the Iliad workedGnedich - 2 times he expounded a sample of ancient Greek classics in prose and 1 time in verses. The last attempt (1787) is the most significant, because for her the poet had to continue considerable work to transform the hexameter and adapt it to the Russian language. Although initially he tried to translate an Alexandrian verse, on which he spent 6 years, but was disappointed in the result, destroyed all his labors and began anew, already using only heximeter.
Thanks to such efforts Gnedich succeededcreate the best translation of the poem of Homer, which to this day is considered unsurpassed. Here is a small excerpt from it: “The word is finished, the Festivalis is set; erected from the host / Powerful hero, the extensively-powerful King Agamemnon ... ”. Written in hexameters in the original, the Iliad was thus recreated in the same rhythm in Russian.
It is hard to believe, but the first examples of the translation were met by readers negatively, and Gnedych had to defend the chosen poetic size.
19th century
Work on the translations of Homer continued Zhukovsky,presenting the Russian reader Odyssey. He also owns a wonderful adaptation of the “War of Mice and Frogs,” in which the hexameter was also taken as the poetic basis. Examples from the works: “Muse, tell me about that highly experienced husband who / has been wandering for a long time since the day that St. Ilion was destroyed by them ...” (“Odyssey”); “Listen: I will tell you, my friends, about mice and frogs. / The tale is a lie, and the song is true, they tell us; but in this ... "(" War ").
Also the hexameter was addressed by Pushkin, Lermontov,Fet and many other poets of the 19th century. However, interest in him gradually subsides. In the 20th century, this poetic size was again revived in the works of Vyach. Ivanova, Balmont, Shengeli, Nabokov.
