Tónický verš a čeština
Tonic verse and Czech

Summary/Abstract: This paper describes the metric structure of accentual verse and its place in the panoply of versification systems. The author compares the definitions of this type of verse for both Czech and foreign authors and examines the reasons behind their differences. She describes the category of time isochrony as a feature of a language in which the tonic principle operates and presents the concept of tonism in Polish, English, Russian and German. The next section summarizes the period and contemporary reception of texts by six Czech authors (F. L. Čelakovský, K. J. Erben, P. Bezruč, F. Gellner, O. Theer and J. Kainar), whose verse is either considered by some theorists to be accentual or which has been discussed in this light in the past. The final chapter focuses on the issues surrounding translations of accentual verse into Czech and the association between tonism and the metric base of other types of verse, as well as the aural nature of accentual verse in general. It is not primarily the aim of this paper to prove or refute the existence of Czech accentual verse or its usage by particular authors. What is far more important here is the presentation of possible views of this metrical category and the quest for an answer to: a) what is and should be a generally applicable yardstick for the occurrence of a specific verse form in national literature, and b) what is the importance of objectively identifiable features of verse and on the other hand the national, cultural, historical and literary-historical context for its final designation, and thus also for the interpretation of entire poetic texts.

• Details
• Contents