Ancient Greco-Roman meters and stanzas in Russian poetry: origin and development

The basis of the metrical repertoire of Russian poetry is made up of meters of ancient Greco-Roman origin, which came through the intermediary of German poetry. The basic stanzaic models also originated from there. Meters and stanzas transplanted directly from the ancient tradition are quantitatively marginal but are important from the point of view of self-evaluation of culture. The article analyses the structure and functions of hexameter and the major ancient strophes, beginning with Church Slavonic quantitative hexameters and ending with the development of the basic form of hexameter in the early 19th century. At the same time, issues that were at the centre of the debate about Russian hexameter are considered: the problem of accentuation, spondee, and caesura.