"Pod tendom neba, trohejskom bjelinom." O (meta)metrici preddrontskih stihova Ivana Slamniga
"Under the Carapace of the Sky, under the Trochaic Whiteness." On the (Meta)metrics of Ivan Slamnig’s Verse Before Dronta

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyses the verse of Croatian poet Ivan Slamnig in his poetry collections published before the Dronta collection (1981). However, the paper does not stop at the formal analysis of specific metres, but it also studies their origin and meaning. Firstly, the trochaic tetrameter is analysed, along with the changes that Slamnig introduces when using the verse and the effects these changes entail. With this in mind, its metametrical neutrality regarding tradition is also discussed. The discussion leads to examining Slamnig’s iambic verses. The paper demonstrates how the verses with varying number of feet alter between each other, which effects elasticity of the form. Slamnig’s iamb is reserved to a fault for “higher”, more learned topics in poems, which are not immune to depathetization and irony. Finally, some of Slamnig’s metric quotations, which have either been omitted or modestly analysed, are examined in greater detail: Dante’s terza rima, used in two of Slamnig’s poems, is analysed in order to argue that it connotes movement. The metrical connection between the poem “Ridanje” (“Weeping”) and Matoš’s poem “Tear” (“Suza”) is also discussed in order to analyse the poems’ semantic similarities. Finally, Slamnig’s poem “Bombay” is compared to Pushkin’s novel in verse Eugene Onegin, the latter being a more plausible intertext of the former.

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