Conflict between the Line and the Sentence in a Poetic Text

Abstract

This article considers the relationship and interaction of the main structural units of poetic text: metric (lines) and grammatical (sentences). The line and the sentence (or its significant structural part — syntagma) only ideally correspond to each other. In practice, however, the metrical organisation of the verse dictates its own rules. The conflict of these units in the reader’s consciousness causes a process of division and understanding (comprehension) of the poem. Referring to various examples, the author demonstrates the primacy of the line over the sentence which is normal for the reader (titles of poems in the table of contents collections; the use of stepwise lines; enjambements; asyndetic constructions, etc.). These observations are confirmed by statistical data of search queries for poetic texts in Yandex. The line also takes on organising functions in cases where the syntax of the phrase is unclear or ambiguous. When a part of a sentence is moved to another line (enjambement), there is a psychological effect of failed expectations that complicate the process of understanding. If the whole poem is built on enjambement, it reduces its efficiency: the reader “gets used” to receiving and evaluating it as a kind of wordplay. The compactness of the line, “the closeness of the poetic string” (Yu. Tynyanov) together with asyndeton allows the reader to reconstruct various logical (temporary, cause-and-effect, concessive, etc.) connections between different parts of the poem. The author concludes that the collision between the line and the sentence as two types of text division contributes to the aesthetic effect of the latter. The theoretical theses are substantiated with examples from Russian poetry (B. Pasternak, M. Tsvetaeva, A. Tarkovsky, I. Brodsky, A. Kushner, A. Parschikov, etc.).

Keywords

• грамматика
• метрика
• русская поэзия
• строка
• предложение
• анжамбеман