V. K. Trediakovskii and A. P. Sumarokov in Polemics about the Sapphic Stanza

The transition from syllabic to syllabo-tonic verse in Russian poetry the 1730s — early 1740s years is connected activity of three outstanding writers: Vasilii Trediakovskii (1703–1769), Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765) and Aleksandr Sumarokov (1717–1777). This reform concerned first foremost binary ternary meters paved way for creation more complicated meters, among them equivalents ancient Aeolic verse. Sapphic hendecasyllable was most known widespread them. sapphic stanza likewise very popular European literatures; it consists hendecasyllabic lines an adonean fourth line. poets eagerly created rhymed sapphicstanzas with a caesura after fifth syllable hendecasyllables, stresses all four unregulated. composed such stanzas his translation Paul Tallemant’s gallant novel “Le voyage de l’isle d’amour, à Licidas” (Paris, 1663), printed 1730 Saint Petersburg. In 1735, published “A New Brief Method Composing Verse”, which considered beginning versification. this treatise, proposed regulated stanza. hendecasyllables were consist six trochees; third them, before regular caesura, catalectic. All concluded feminine rhymes. second edition work (1752) revisited conception. At point he understood as combination trochees one dactyl middle Under influence Lomonosov’s “Letter on Rules Poetry” (1739) became convinced necessity alternating rhymes reason decided that two should have masculine As result truncated these so they contained only ten syllables. lost about Horatian Stanzas” (1755) expressed strong disagreement Trediakovskii’s revised He found decasyllables unacceptable; also came out against caesurae. However, treated metrical structure same had. 1755 1758, poems stanzas, unrhymed, but always without 1762, translated Horace’s Carmen saeculare. Their form allows conclude took Sumarokov’s criticism intoaccount: rejected stanzas. Only question did remain unyielding.