The features of Varlam Shalamov’s versification
https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2025-11-340-357
Abstract
The article сonsiders the key individual characteristics of the versification system of the renowned traditionalist poet Varlam Shalamov, demonstrating the mechanisms of his hidden innovation and the influence of the lyricist Boris Pasternak on his poetic style. It provides an overview of Shalamov’s metrics, strophes, sound organization of verse, and rhyme. It shows how, despite the obvious predominance of iambic tetrameter and quatrain stanzas in his poetry, the poet also demonstrates an interest in rare forms of metrics and sound organization of verse, which, in some poems, bring him closer to the innovative forms of 20th-century Russian poetry.
Keywords
Shalamov,
Pasternak,
versification,
metrics,
syllabo-tonic verse,
iamb,
strophes,
quatrain,
sonnet,
sound organization,
alliteration
About the Author
Yu. B. Orlitsky
Russian State University for the Humanities
Россия
Россия
Yurii B. Orlitsky, Dr. of Sci. (Philology)
6-6, Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125047
References
1. Gasparov, M.L. (1974), Sovremennyi russkii stikh: Metrika i ritmika [Modern Russian verse. Metrics and rhythm], Nauka, Moscow, USSR.
2. Esipov, V.V. (2020), “Poems after Kolyma (Poetic diary of Varlam Shalamov)”, in Shalamov, V.T., Stikhotvoreniya i poemy [Verses and poems], 2 vols., Izdatel’stvo Pushkinskogo Doma, Vita Nova, Saint Petersburg, Russia, pp. 5–70.
3. Ivanov, V.Vs. (2004), “From observations on iambic tetrameter in contemporary poetry”, in Ivanov, V.Vs., Izbrannye trudy po semiotike i istorii kul’tury [Selected works on semiotics and cultural history], vol. 3, Yazyki slavyanskoi kul’tury, Moscow, Russia, pp. 725–731.
4. Ivanov, V.Vs. (2013), “Shalamov’s poetry”, in Solov’ev, S.M., ed., comp., Varlam Shalamov v kontekste mirovoi literatury i sovetskoi istorii: sbornik trudov Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii “Sud’ba i tvorchestvo Varlama Shalamova v kontekste mirovoi literatury i sovetskoi istorii” (Moskva – Vologda, 16–19 iyunya 2011 g.) [Varlam Shalamov in the Context of world literature and Soviet history: Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference “The fate and work of Varlam Shalamov in the context of world literature and Soviet history”, (Moscow – Vologda, June 16–19, 2011)], Litera, Moscow, Russia, pp. 31–41.
5. Orlitsky, Yu.B. (2020), Stikhoslozhenie noveishei russkoi poezii [Versification of modern Russian poetry], Izdatel’skii dom “YaSK”, Moscow, Russia.
Review
For citations:
Orlitsky Yu.B. The features of Varlam Shalamov’s versification. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2025;(11(2)):340-357. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2025-11-340-357
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