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Poetry Magnum Opus

Slavic Poetry


Tinker

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Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry

Slavic Verse
The Slavic nations cover the vast regions of Central and Eastern Europe and Northern and Central Asia. Belarus, Georgia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Russia and the Ukraine share a similarity in languages and some cultural traits. They also share a similar history in literature with their early works merging pagan and Christian traditions. The people followed their leaders with little opposition in the transition to Christianity and the church dominated most of the early literature of the Slavic states. Vladamir the Great 987 AD, troubled by some of the attrocities occasioned by his pagan religion sent envoys out to study other religions, christian and muslim. Apparently he was presented with the Gospels and the Koran at the same time. He chose christianity over the Muslim faith "because his Russians could not live without the pleasures of drinking."

Although the Slavic regions did produce epic tales in verse, the Slavic epic differs from Western and Eastern epics being relatively short and never centered on mythical characters. Shorter lyrical poetry in trochaic meter dominates the history. It tends to describe restful, quiet scenes with incidents of "domestic grief or joy" and is void of the strong, dramatic characters found in Western poetry.(This is surprising to me because when I think of Russian literature I think of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and War and Peace, but these are epic novels not poetry.) The dominant tone seems to lean toward the melancholy. Superstitions, foreboding, dreams and omens are often manifested.

                   Latvian Song                    

                   Neguli, saulīte
                   Apiņu dārzā
                   Tur tevi ziediņi
                   Apbierdinās
English Translation

Do not tarry, Sun
In the garden of APIN
Or the blossoms
Will cover you there.

The poetic forms and genres included in this forum are from:

Belarus
Czech
Georgia
Hungary
Latvia
Russia
Ukraine

~~ © ~~ Poems by Judi Van Gorder ~~

For permission to use this work you can write to Tinker1111@icloud.com

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