The Rhyme Structure of Pushkin’s “Pamjatnik”

Abstract

The following study attempts to show in some detail the rather unique fashion in which Alexander Pushkin, the Russian genius of early nineteenth-century poetry, dealt with the device of rhyme in one of his most famous poems. Elsewhere¹ I have shown the patterned structure of the phonological elements in his Prorok (The Prophet) as well as in certain other of his lyrics. A cursory glance at almost any of his lyrics shows that it is insufficient merely to state the rhyme scheme which this poet used in a particular poem since his sensitivities to the sound texture of his creations led him to deal with them in such a way as to produce rather intricate patterns of sound. Thanks to the achievements of modern structural linguistics, especially in the field of phonology, this patterning can be described and assessed not only in a very objective way but in a way which could well represent the poet’s conscious or unconscious creative sensitivities to the patterning of the phonological elements of his language.