To begin with, we will conduct a short excursion into the history of Russian poetry.
Reform of Russian versification
The process of forming the size of poems (one of which is iambic four-footed) in Russian literature has been long and heterogeneous. At the beginning of the XVIII century, the rhyme was bulky, heavy and was perceived very difficult. But after a few decades, poetry was subjected to a massive reformation, which is associated, first of all, with the names of Trediakovsky and Lomonosov. The latter summarized all the knowledge of versification, recognizing the equal rights of all sizes identified by Trediakovsky, but he himself preferred yamba. I must say, he is not alone. Yamb firmly established himself in the work of many great Russian poets, such as Derzhavin, Zhukovsky, Pushkin and Lermontov.
The most common size was the four-foot iambic. Foot is a group of syllables in a poem that are united by a common rhythm, in other words, by stress. The number four in the title indicates that emphasis must be placed on every even (second) syllable. From these simple studies, the iambic itself is formed. Consider illustrative examples.
How to determine iambic?
It is not so difficult to determine the four-foot iambic, examples of it exist in very large numbers. If you demonstrate this size in the form of random syllables and for greater clarity, highlight in capital letters those syllables that the stress will fall on, you get something like:
tada tada tada ta bum
tada ta bum tada tada
And so on, examples can be given endlessly. Instead of syllables taken from the head, it is easy to substitute words and thus get a couplet, the size of which is a four-foot iambic:
You are MY FAVORITE, LIGHT BEAM,
YOU ARE NOT SCARY TONS OF CLOUD!
Those syllables that follow the drums are commonly called the “clause”. And the stresses in each line are iktami. When reading aloud, some accents may be skipped to make the line more melodic, flying, weightless. A similar technique is called "pyrrhic." But in order to understand whether the iambic is four-footed before you, it is necessary to rewrite one line of the poem and highlight all the stresses for yourself, and then calculate how many stressed syllables are in the work. It is important not to forget that the stress should fall on an even syllable!
What is an iambic?
Do not think that there is only a four-foot iambic. The number of stops depends only on the author of the poetic work. Therefore, you can even find its one-stop modification, for example:
FALL
HIS
taram
param
If the lines are odd - in front of you is a two-stop iamb, if even - a three-stop.
KARA, KARA
TARA, TIRA, VARA
There are an infinite number of such examples. The variety of iamba depends only on the poet. But the iambic four-footed is undoubtedly the most popular of all. Increased attention arose due to the simplicity, weightlessness of this poetic rhythm. It’s easy and pleasant for them to write, and reading is even easier. Actively use iamba to this day. By learning to identify it once, you may be able to compose good verses yourself. There would be a rhyme, but you can figure out the melody. We sincerely wish you good luck in any undertakings!