On a Couple of Missed Innovations in the Verse of the Sixtiers

This article examines two verse types specific to the poets of the 1960s generation. The first type can be described as a dolnik (a Russian strict-stress meter) with a binary basis and a caesura, while the second can be described as a paeonic dolnik. Although both forms appeared sporadically in Russian poetry of the early 20th century, they were popularized by this generation, primarily through the efforts of Andrei Voznesensky and Robert Rozhdestvensky. Despite their recognizable structural features, these metrical types have rarely been studied in the context of late 20th-century poetry. The analysis of these relatively marginal metrical forms reveals connections between official Soviet poetry—epitomized by the 1960s generation—and unofficial poetry, which employed the same verse forms while ostensibly rejecting ties to the Soviet literary establishment. The identification of such links, often disregarded by literary criticism, is facilitated by the use of the poetic subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus. This tool enables a more precise genealogical mapping of verse forms adopted by contemporary poets, thereby challenging established narratives of poetic evolution.