METRICAL FORMS AND TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARMENIAN POETRY DURING THE PERIOD OF INDEPENDENCE

The article examines the metrical features of Armenian poetry of recent decades. During this period, the generation of poets of the 1960-70s continued to create (Hov. Grigoryan, H. Edoyan, A. Harutyunyan, A. Martirosyan, Hr. Sarukhan, etc.), new talented poets appeared next to them with their own unique statements and new ways of verse constructing. In the poetry of this period, free verse (verlibre) was especially widespread. Hovhannes Grigoryan created his own unique and original free verse, which has become iconic for a new generation of writers. A number of poets who gave preference to the Armenian traditional syllabic meters (Artashes Khazaryan, Armen Martirosyan, etc.) also began to use free verse. In general, one gets the impression that the element of free verse also influenced the syllabic poetry of this period, forming transitional, intermediate forms. For example, the poetry of David Hovhannes is like that. Interesting changes have occurred in recent decades in the field of pure syllabic verse: forms and combinations of lines that were not accepted or were used very rarely in Armenian poetry of the previous period began to be used very widely. This is due to the large-scale “invasion” of free verse, and it is not surprising that syllabic verse expanded its scope, adapting to the widespread “liberation” of verse. Most poets seemed to be trying to erase the strict boundaries of syllabic verse and free verse, in some way combining their capabilities. Tonic verse, which entered our poetry at the beginning of the 20th century, continues to be one of the means of lyrical expression of poets of the new generation in the context of the “emancipation” of poetic speech, however, syllabic-tonic verse is almost completely removed from Armenian poetry of the 1990-2000s. These most important trends also form the vision for the further development of modern Armenian poetry.