Implementation of content categories harmony / disharmony in the metric of B. I. Antonych

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the collection «Great Harmony» by B. I. Antonych. The poet tries to understand the essence of God and to find harmony in his own heart. The word «harmony» is the foundational image of the book. But the poet rather demonstrates his own internal contradictions, complex relations with the world and with himself, which is reflected in the poetics of the collection. The book included poems on a religious theme, written during 1932–1933.

We tried to find out how the content categories «harmony» and «disharmony» are realized at the versification level. The content determines the form, and the form depends on the content. The collection includes both classical rhyming verses (as syllabic-tonic) and non-classical verses (as non-syllabic-tonic). The non-classical poem is presented in all varieties – dolnik, taktovik and accent verse. The taktovik is used less often, it is mostly included in other non-classical sizes.

The poet is looking for harmony, but, unfortunately, he cannot reach it. The collection is completely contrasting, consisting of contradictions both at the level of images and at the level of versification. The poet conveys his own mental anguish not only through binary oppositions (life-death, day-night, light-darkness, harmony-disharmony, good-evil, joy-sadness), but also through the classical and non-classical form of the poem. B. I. Antonych contrasts the harmonious, perfect world of nature with the disharmonious, "mechanistic", artificial world of people. The lyrical hero suffers because he is between piety and temptations, God and Satan, nature and civilization, harmony and chaos. And that is why the author constantly balances between classical and non-classical verse. Although classical verse dominates the collection, the rhythm of the poems is not harmonious. The author combines long and short lines, uses imprecise rhymes and off-topic accents, changes rhyming. This shows the disharmony of the poet's inner world.