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Abstract:

The article discusses M. Prishvin’s work experience with free verse (vers libre), a type of Russian versification actively developed within the Silver Age culture. At the same time, Prishvin focused on a version of this verse form based on the traditions of Russian folklore (like A. Dobrolyubov and M. Kuzmin). As free verse, the author proposes to interpret the laments of the folk storyteller Stepanida Maksimovna in Prishvin’s “free” notes, reproduced in the book of essays “In the Land of Fearless Birds” (1907) and Gubin’s “stories” from the story “Ship Thicket” (1935–1936), and also several entries in the writer’s diary for 1935. At the same time, the author relies on domestic traditions of fixing oral folklore, the performer of which the character of Prishvin’s story is supposed to be, in the free verse form. Gubin’s short inserted stories (also called poems, songs, and even epics by Prishvin) correlate with the entries in the writer’s diary that preceded them. The article shows the mechanism of transformation of the diary text into character poetry.