Verse

Verse

Tarlinskaja (1976: 1) gives the following definition: “Verse is a special type of speech, broken into relatively short segments (lines), each of which is also called ‘a verse’. The opposite of verse is prose. [...] In poetry the segmentation is uniform and mandatory for all readers (in modern poetry this is graphically expressed; for this reason the term ‘line’ is often synonymous with the term ‘verse’). [...]

The main function of the verse structure is to create a perceptible effect of rhythmic alternation between entities of the same type. The basic rhythmical entities, common to all systems of versification, are lines (verses). At this level, lines are structurally equivalent and commensurate, although their real length may vary within certain limits. Verses belong to one or another system of versification depending upon the main feature of the line which forms the basis of their commensurability.”

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