Before describing specific definitions (they say, amphibrachium is ..., etc.), one should understand what versification is. Usually, it is understood as the principles of the organization of poetic speech into one rhythmic whole. Literary scholars separate the metric and accent systems, and the first, represented by antique works, Russian folk verses, is more ancient. Accent versification is divided, in turn, into the tonic, syllabic and syllabonic tonic systems.
The poet’s appeal to one of them is dictated by the features of his language. For syllabic versification, the number of syllables is important, for tonic - stresses. That is why syllabic versification is common in national literature, which use the language with a fixed stress. These include Polish, French. Russian and Ukrainian literature also knows examples of syllabic versification, however, for obvious reasons, it did not take root here. For syllabo-tonic versification (namely, it is most inherent in Russian poetry), the number of stressed and unstressed syllables is important; the scheme of their alternation was called the poetic size. It is two-syllable and three-syllable. The first group includes iambic and trochee, the second - dactyl, amphibrach, anapaest.
Iamb
As M. Gasparov testified, about half of all poetic texts of the second half of the 19th century fall to this poetic size. In iamba, the foot (a combination of shock and unstressed components) consists of two syllables. The first is unstressed, the second is under stress (for example: "Again, I am standing over the Neva ..."). In Russian classicism , a 6-foot iambic was especially common. It was used mainly in the so-called high genres - odes or messages. Subsequently, the 6-foot, as well as free iambic amphibrachium and other three-complex sizes will be completely replaced.
Trochee
In this case, the first syllable of the two-syllable foot is under stress (for example, the familiar lines from children's poetry “My cheerful sonorous ball”). Especially often in the poetry of the past and the century before last 5-foot chorea is found.
Dactyl
We pass to three-complex sizes. These include, as already mentioned, dactyl, amphibrach, anapaest. The first size from this list begins with the stressed syllable, and the other two remain unselected. An example of a dactyl is a line from Lermontov’s poetry: “Clouds of heaven, eternal wanderers ...”
Amphibrachium is ...
The stressed syllable may not be at the beginning, but in the middle of a three-syllable foot. Such a rhythmic organization of the line clearly says that we have amphibrachium. This he wrote the famous "The horse will stop the race ...", which is almost the official anthem of all Russian women.
Anapaest
Finally, the stress can fall on the last, third syllable, then we are dealing with anapaest. It is clearly manifested, for example, in the lines: “It sounded over a clear river ...” Anapest, amphibrach and dactyl were especially popular in the poetic texts of the century before last. As M. Gasparov points out, initially they were 4-foot, but then they were replaced by a three-foot option.
If you need to indicate the poetic size in accordance with the task, do not try to determine at random whether it is amphibrach or, perhaps, trochee. Or even a Russian folk verse. To begin with, we advise you to read the text aloud, not really paying attention to the meaning of what was written, but simply minting each phrase. As if knocking out a fraction. After that, write down the line, mark the stressed sections, draw a diagram of the versification system - and the task is completed.
However, not all so simple. The poem may contain feet, completely consisting of stressed (spondae) or unstressed (pyrrhic) syllables. Initially, these terms were applied to ancient poetry. As applied to the syllabonic-tonic system, they simply denote the omission (or presence) of stress where it should not be. In addition, the text can be written dolnik. This means that there is rhythmic organization in it, however, the intervals between different syllables are inconsistent. A striking example of this is the lines of the Bloc: “The girl sang in the church choir ...”
In the poetry of the twentieth century, the form of an accent verse (already mentioned by Blok, Mayakovsky) was also used. It is distinguished by an equal number of stressed syllables and has a different number of unstressed components. That is, in fact, the accent verse is the embodiment of the tonic system of versification in modern literature. There are more exotic cases - a combination of one stressed and three unstressed syllables (the so-called peon). He wrote the famous lines: “Do not think about the seconds down ...” It is also necessary to remember the poetic experiments of the futurists, which went against any theoretical ideas.
Finally, the poem can be generally white. This means that he does not have a rhyme, but a rhythmic organization is still present. So white anapaest or white iamb in nature exist.