A masculine ending and feminine ending or weak ending are terms used in prosody, the study of verse form. In general, "masculine ending" refers to a line ending in a stressed syllable; "feminine ending" is its opposite, describing a line ending in a stressless syllable. The terms originate from a grammatical pattern of the French language. When masculine or feminine endings are rhymed with the same type of ending, they respectively result in masculine or feminine rhymes. Poems often arrange their lines in patterns of masculine and feminine endings. The distinction of masculine vs. feminine endings is independent of the distinction between metrical feet.
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👉 Feminine rhyme in the context of Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse (Russian: Евгений Онегин, роман в стихах, romanized: Yevgeniy Onegin, roman v stikhakh, pre-reform Russian: Евгеній Онѣгинъ, романъ въ стихахъ, [jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ɐˈnʲeɡʲɪn]) is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. Onegin is considered a classic of Russian literature, and its eponymous protagonist has served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes (so-called superfluous men). It was published in a serial form between 1825 and 1832. The first complete edition was published in 1833, and the currently accepted version is based on the 1837 publication.
Almost the entire work is made up of 389 fourteen-line stanzas (5,446 lines in all) of iambic tetrameter with the unusual rhyme scheme AbAbCCddEffEgg, where the uppercase letters represent feminine rhymes while the lowercase letters represent masculine rhymes. This original structure is known as the "Onegin stanza" or "Pushkin sonnet".
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Feminine rhyme
- 👉 Feminine rhyme in the context of Eugene Onegin
- Feminine rhyme in the context of Polish alexandrine
Feminine rhyme in the context of Polish alexandrine
Polish alexandrine (Polish: trzynastozgłoskowiec) is a common metrical line in Polish poetry. It is similar to the French alexandrine. Each line is composed of thirteen syllables with a caesura after the seventh syllable. The main stresses are placed on the sixth and twelfth syllables. Rhymes are feminine.
The Polish alexandrine was introduced in the 15th century. It was borrowed from Latin poetry. It was widely used by Jan Kochanowski, the first great Polish poet, as exemplified in the first two lines of his "Lament 13", with a formal paraphrase in English:
View the full Wikipedia page for Polish alexandrine