A person constantly feels the rhythm. This is the rhythm of his heart, the pulse of his heart. This is the rhythm of the music he hears. These are the rhythmic sounds of a running clock.
Sense of rhythm
Rhythm always has an impact on a person. Monotonous speech, rhythmically consisting of syllables identical in volume, makes an inexpressive speech canvas. Only the stress in words allows us to distinguish them from each other.
After a short time, involuntarily, sounds are structured by the brain and are perceived as repeating quiet and loud syllables, alternating between themselves. Having written down the louder syllable as “/”, and the quiet as “-”, we get the following scheme:
- / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - /.
Boring and boring, isn't it? It is easy to disconnect from the interlocutor and fly away with thoughts far, far. Or even fall asleep. As you know, the most soothing thing is a lecture. Nevertheless, the smallest elements of the verse, the syllables, were determined. They are called first level rhythm units.
To speech has ceased to be monotonous, read with expression. Highlight stressed syllables and put semantic stress in the whole phrase.
Rhythm in prose
The rhythms of verse and the rhythms of prose obey one law. Moreover, the musical rhythm also corresponds to them. When a phrase is built, the words are emphasized and the key word or phrase is highlighted. In a musical phrase, emphasis is made by highlighting a fragment with the help of amplification or reduction of sound or pause.
The rhythm in prose is inconsistent and this differs from the rhythm of the verse. In the poem, the entire text is structured and subordinated to a certain rhythm. It can change, return to the original, but it is always there. In prose, however, it is sometimes present to express a certain thought. The writer uses this tool to underline an enumeration, for example:
- The train drew its line from west to east, glimpsed fields, forests and squalid villages in the windows. They were replaced by summer cottages, which smoothly passed into the suburbs, and then into provincial towns.
The rhythmic record of this phrase will look like this:
- / - - / - - / - - / - - - /, - / - - - - /, - / - - / - - - - / -. / - - - / - - - / -, - / - - / - - - / - - / -, - - / - - - - / - - - /.
Is there anything from the rhythm of the train, is it? And here is a phrase recording of a different mood:
- No, I will not do it. Not attacked! What's this? Money? To me? Out! Get out of my apartment and out of my life!
- /, - - / - / - - / -. - - - / - /! - - /? / -? /? /! / - - / - / - - - - - / -!
If any reasoning is inserted into this phrase, the dynamics of the action will change, and with it expressive expressions will go away, the character's speech color will change, he will have a different character:
- No, I will not do it. Who do you take me for? That I myself signed this document? He became your guarantor, risking the well-being of his own family? What is it? Money? Now you are ready to pay for my betrayal, and who will pay me when you betray me? Go away. The conversation is over.
- /, - - / - / - - / -. - - - / - - / - - / -? - - /, - - - - - / -, - - / - - - - /? / - - - - / - -, - / - - - - / - - / - - - /? / - -? / -? - / - - - - / - - - / - -, - - - - - /, - - / - - - /? - - /. - - / - / -.
This can be said by a gentle person, the very opposite of the easily boiling neurotic from the first example. As you can see, the rhythm in prose serves to color the narrative or regulate the dynamics of the action.
The rhythm unit in the verse is the foot.
Sounds of the same duration, which are expressed in the recording as “/” and “-”, make up any element. There are quite a large number of them, here are just a few:
They are called units of the second level - feet. The name came from antiquity, when the dancer fell to the full stop. The drawing of his dance consisted of two characters: percussion (foot) and unstressed (dance on toes). Over time, the classic foot changed its appearance, and now it is called the repeating element of the verse, where there is one stressed syllable and one or more unstressed.
If there is no drawing on the first level, then it appears on the second. These verses will be composed of these “bricks”. Most often they consist of two, three or four shares. Therefore, they are called two-, three- and four-lobed feet.
Line
For the beauty of sounding, units of rhythm of the second level are not enough. They are grouped into lines or rhythmic units of the third level:
- / - / - / - / -
- - / - / - / - / -
- / - - / - - / - - /
- - - / - - / - - /
- - / - - / - - / -
For example, let's try to write the rhythm in the verse, highlighting the syllables that the gain falls on:
- Let us laugh and cry
- and sincere feelings from each other not to hide.
- - - - - / - - - - - / -
- - / - - / - - - - - / -.
The size and rhythm of the verse may not coincide, although they are recorded with the same signs.
Verse size
Salieri told Mozart that he "measured harmony with algebra." This has a deep meaning: verses can be measured, and the unit of measurement will be the size of the verse.
There are five main sizes in Russian versification:
- / -
- - /
- / - -
- - / -
- - - /
They are called, respectively, chorea, iambic, dactyl, amphibrach, anapaest. Accent plays an important role in determining the size of a verse. And if the rhythm is a variable quantity, depending on the performer, then he cannot change the size. Here's what the size record of the previous verse looks like:
- - / - - / - - / - - / -
- - / - - / - - / - - / -.
It’s like a musical notation. Whether to play with great feeling, expressively, or to beat the beat as they play in dance classes - it depends on the accompanist. The notes remain the same in both cases.
The same thing with the reciter of verses: he can read them with great enthusiasm, highlighting some words and pausing. Then his performance will become like a good performance of a musical piece. Now imagine a school cramp that went to the blackboard and read the poem on one note, monotonously. He reflected the size of the verse, but did not give it a rhythm. Poems without rhythm division are lifeless.
Stanza
From stressed and unstressed syllables, feet are formed, from them - lines, and from lines - stanzas. A stanza is a unit of rhythm of the fourth level. It can have one size for all lines, and can change it. A. S. Pushkin invented the “Onegin stanza”, where he combined several sizes.
But still a stanza is a rhythm. Repeating from two to many times, she gives the picture a poem.
The most common are four-line stanzas. And the stanzas contain rhyme.
Rhyme
Some words end equally. In this case, one word for another is a rhyme. A person gets acquainted with them from birth: lullabies and children's counters, sayings, jokes and sayings contain rhyming words. A feature of rhyme in modern versification is that it can be taken from another language.
Zemfira quietly rhymes for the word "discos":
- The last thing I need is your comebacks ...
Moreover, you can rhyme words that are not at all in any language. This is exactly what Lewis Carroll did by inserting a poem about the Barmaglot into his tale:
- "Cooked ... Creamy Shork ..."
With his light hand went experimenting by poets of the early twentieth century. Harms, for example, wrote:
- People are sleeping:
- urls-murles.
- Over people
- soaring eagles.
Here rhyme is "eagles - murles". From the fact that there is no such word, poetry has not ceased to be poetry. Sustained verse size, rhythm and rhyme. Although it may not be. There are several forms where verses are composed without rhyme.
Hexameters and White Verse
The size of the hexameter is known from Homer's Odyssey. After translating it into Russian, poets began to imitate the ancient meter more often. It has the following scheme:
- / - - / - - / - - / - - / - - / -
The antique size of hexameters is not often used in Russian verses. However, some hexameters have become widely known. For example, in the film “About the poor hussar, put in a word” during a rehearsal of an ancient play written by hexameters, Bubentsov in a sheepskin coat appears on the stage and addresses the Greek gods: “My dear brothers, plebeians and fauns!” Keeping the size of the hexameter, he asks them to draw it through the stage. Actors instantly rebuild and respond in the same spirit.
Another example of this verse is found in The Golden Calf, the second book about O. Bender by the writers Ilf and Petrov. Hardly escaping the fire, V. Lokhankin spoke in an antique verse:
- "I have come to live with you forever, I hope I find a shelter with you."
The main thing in this verse is not rhyme, but size. It extends to all lines, and the narrative becomes like a ballad:
- The sun had long since disappeared, gone to rest before dawn.
- And he was in no hurry to go out into the night sky.
- They sing in the waves, calling sailors, sirens.
- Only the light of the lighthouse shines cheerfully.
Poems without rhyme are called "white verse". There are very beautiful poems by A. Blok and S. Cherny written in this style. They are structured, have a rhythm of verse, a poetic size, and this is real poetry.
Burime
Writing simple rhymes does not require inspiration. You just need to know the basic laws of versification. These laws are based on the game "burime". Two pairs of rhymes are set, and the players compose the quatrains. After reading out the creations and choosing the most successful. This salon game allows you to quickly understand the concepts of the rhythm of the verse, the poetic size and the construction of the stanza with rhyming lines. Suppose we are given two pairs of such rhymes: “guipure - manicure” and “jam - from haute couture”. Here's what could happen:
- Superfine Guipure Gloves
- French did not hide the manicure.
- Today I cook confiture in the kitchen,
- Having dressed in a haute couture outfit.
In this quatrain, paired rhymes are in adjacent lines. It would be possible to swap them. Although they do not agree on the size, anapest is already read in the given words:
These are words with two unstressed syllables and one, last, stressed. It is known that they should be at the end of the line. Therefore, there are few options for choosing the size of the verse.
You can record the rhythm of the verse, assuming the performance of its glamorous special:
- - - - - - - - /
- - - - - - - - /
- - - / - - / - - / - - /
- - - / - - / - - /.
Rhythm definition
In educational institutions where they teach acting, there is such an exercise: read the quatrain or tongue twister with different expressions. For example, as B. Akhmadullina, V. Mayakovsky, R. Litvinova would read it. The rhythm in the verse will vary depending on the character of the reader.
Chopped phrases by V. Mayakovsky suggest the allocation of almost every word and significant pauses. B. Akhmadullina, most likely, would read it in a dreamy tone, focusing only at the end of the line. And R. Litvinova, perhaps, would highlight the beginning and end of the line, pronouncing the rest of the text quietly, as if to herself.
It can be concluded: rhythm is a creative approach to the text. Highlighting certain phrases, pausing, placing other accents, the reader makes the text vibrant and dynamic. The rhythm in the verse is a variable quantity. It varies depending on the mood of the reciter. Interrogative intonation or exclamation will not change either the text of the verse or its size, but will create the opposite impression of the author’s creation. That is why it is very important to be able to control the rhythm while reading poetry.