Iambic Tetrameter in Russian Folk Spiritual Verses: Literary Sources, Thematic Range, Metrical and Rhythmical Peculiarities

The article examines such an important source for studying the history of Russian versification as late folk spiritual verse — a kind of a side branch of the classical poetic tradition. The paper provides information about the main themes and plots, images and motifs. In the verses of this group, Old Testament and New Testament themes are widespread; a number of texts take the form of a prayer addressed to Christ, the Mother of God, and the saints; an edifying principle is presented; poems of the funeral cycle occupy an important place; a number of plots reflect significant historical events. Such verses were widespread among the Old Believers, although the authors of the poems (often anonymous) were not necessarily Old Believers. This material has so far been underestimated by scholars, although many facts extracted from such texts make it possible to illuminate the problem of the verse formation its rhythmic structure, and to discover similarities and differences in literary and folk poetic creativity. Using the example of poems written in iambic tetrameter, I prove that the rhythmic tendencies of folk poetry and classical literary verse are based on the same general patterns. However, the prevalence of metrical models is not the same: while in classical Russian literature of the 19th century iambic tetrameter predominates, in folk tradition trochaic tetrameter is much more common. In the study, I demonstrate such a feature of folklore poems as irregular metrical failure, which is not determined by artistic and aesthetic goals and leads to the destruction of the poetic structure of text.