Georgy Shengeli as a verse master and as a verse explorer

Abstract

The present stage of verse studies is marked by a rekindling of interest in the theoretical approaches of the 1920s and 1930s that emerged in the milieu close to the Russian ‘formal school’. In this respect, one of the most significant figures is Georgii Shengeli (1894—1956), who is known primarily as one of the most insightful researchers of verse theory and Russian non-classical metrics. Less attention has been paid to Shengeli’s own poetic experiments, which have remained in the shadow of his work in verse theory, translation and publishing. This study analyses, against the backdrop of Shengeli’s concept of ‘leimic verse’, his experi­ments in the domain of tonic metrics, including numerous examples of classical dolnik, deriv­atives of antique logaoedic verse, and rarer types of dolnik on disyllabic base. Shengeli’s cor­pus of tonic verse demonstrates an affinity for the classical and slightly loosened dolnik: most of his ‘leimic’ texts have lines of regular three-syllable meters, variable anacrusa is not un­common, and there are isolated extensions. This repertoire is close both to the metrics of the younger Acmeists (especially Georgy Ivanov and Georgy Adamovich) and to the metrics of the poets of the Maximilian Voloshin circle (primarily Sofia Parnok).

Keywords

• shengeli
• theory of verse
• non-classical verse
• leimic verse
• russian method