The quatrain is? The simplest form of strophic

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Many authors do not present their lyrics without division into pieces-columns. Someone says that this is done in order to convey a whole idea in each stanza, while others are inclined to the version of banal convenience: they say, it’s easier to work with rhyme and rhythm. Many writers do not dwell on the number of lines in a stanza, they simply insert as many of them as they think necessary, this only affects the perception of the poem. In Russian poetry, quatrain is the most common form of strophic used by both classical authors and modern writers.

What is a quatrain?

You can't say that the more lines in the "column", the more beautiful the poem sounds. By no means: sometimes there is more sense in couplets than in whole ballads. A quatrain (otherwise a quatrain) is a form of stanza that combines four lines in meaning and style. For him, there are no definite canons of rhyme and rhythm - everything here remains at the discretion of the author. The only thingI would like to note that as independent poems, quatrains appear very infrequently, usually they are components of a larger work.

In Russian literature

But despite the fact that in classical literature short quatrains are not very revered and it is not so easy to find them in collections of famous poets, verses-quatrains still exist. It is impossible not to note the early lyrics of Pushkin: his madrigals and epigrams are excellent examples of quatrains that are complete in meaning. This form of strophic is found in Akhmatova, Brodsky, and Pasternak; probably, each poet had beautiful quatrains that could not be shared.

But if we talk about the role of quatrains in large-scale works, it becomes clear: they are a kind of building blocks on which a whole poem, ballad or simple poem is built. The famous “Sail” by M. Lermontov consists of three columns in four lines, the same can be said about the famous poem “The Swallow” by A. Pleshcheev (it begins with the words “The grass is green, the sun is shining, the swallow is flying in the canopy in the spring to us”). The quatrain is one of the most universal forms of stanza, successfully existing both independently and within the framework of a literary work.

At global authors

It's not so easy with world poetry. Russian translations are sometimes very far from the originals: usually only the main idea is preserved, and the poem itself is simply rewritten (many researchers have noticed that Shakespeare's sonnets in Russian in translationMarshak sometimes sound even better than the creations of the English playwright themselves). It is precisely because of this that it is difficult to talk about the preservation of stanzas in translations.

But not everything is lost here either. Poems-quatrains are the main form of the lyrics of Omar Khayyam, a Persian scholar and poet who is so actively quoted on social networks. His writings are not without wit, which is why they are often considered aphorisms.

It is impossible not to note another world-famous predictor - Michel Nostradamus. His book "Centuries" contains a huge number of quatrains, which in an allegorical form tells about the events of the future. Perhaps the transcripts of the prophet's verses are simply adjusted to real events, but it cannot be denied that much of what Nostradamus wrote really came true.

Quadrences today

In modern poetry, quatrains are most often found in the form of comic poetic toasts. Congratulations-quatrains can be found for any holiday, the main thing is just to choose the right one for the occasion. They are easy to remember, and they look much more advantageous than simple words against the general background. But we must not forget that sometimes template verses can only offend the hero of the occasion - now this form of congratulations has become so common and so many quatrains have appeared that their use has begun to cross all boundaries. It seems that the sender is simply marked with his message, congratulates “for show”, and not because he sincerely wants tomake someone happy.

And as with the choice of any poem, in no case should you cross the line between wit and vulgarity - nothing good will come of it. In order to find a good congratulatory poem, you also have to try.

For kids

But what about such a common form of lyrics as children's quatrains? Of course, it is not easy for kids to remember the works of classical authors that are complex and rich in epithets and metaphors, which is why short poems exist as a separate genre of children's literature. For the first time they are found in lullabies (usually these songs consist of several quatrains), then quatrains appear in the alphabet and riddles, followed by poems for kids. Which adult has not noted that children quote huge chunks of their favorite fairy tales or short poems about letters from primers? Children's quatrains are created in order to develop the memory of kids, they become the foundation for mastering more complex forms of lyrics. In addition, usually in poems for children there is a clear rhyme and rhythm, which is why it is much easier to remember them than simple poems.

Conclusion

It is impossible to detract from the merits of various types of stanza, but at the same time, no one denies that the shorter the columns, the faster they are remembered. The quatrain is a universal form of lyrics, freely existing both in the form of independent quatrains and as parts of large literary works. Moreover, they work with rhyme andrhythm is simplified as much as possible (an even number of lines allows you to play with all types of rhyming). It is likely that this simplicity has become the main reason for such popularity of quatrains.