Onegin stanza consists of 12. Onegin stanza

The poetic form of the novel required Pushkin to work hard on the verse. Narration and lyrics are combined in the verse itself. The ordinariness of life and the high moral principles that it gives rise to, the irony towards the main character and the lyrical excitement of the author, the colloquial and bookish style of speech forced Pushkin to turn to the most common meter in Russian poetry and the poet’s favorite meter - iambic tetrameter. Pushkin also needed the iambic to give poetic speech a conversational character. The poet unusually diversified iambic tetrameter, giving it exceptional flexibility and capacity.

The need for unity of the narrative and lyrical principles led Pushkin to the creation of a new strophic form.

The poet makes the stanza a relatively independent work and in this way achieves the unity of narrative and lyrics not only in each stanza, but also in the whole chapter and throughout the novel. Pushkin conducts a casual conversation with the reader, and in this regard, the completeness of each stanza becomes important: the narrative is easily disrupted by lyrical digressions, and then returns to its previous course. Since each stanza is a short story, you can discuss each topic separately, departing from the plot and expressing your point of view. The thread of the narrative is not lost, but the plot is noticeably enlivened and diversified, warmed by the lyrical emotion of the author.

For a stanza to become a small poem, it must be quite voluminous. For this purpose, Pushkin used all combinations of rhymes possible in a four-line stanza (quatrain). The combination of iambic quatrains in the strict order of their three types of rhyme (cross, adjacent, encircling) was carried out by Pushkin. But the poet certainly needed completeness, independence of each stanza. It is easy to notice that the combination of differently rhyming quatrains did not lead to such completeness. There is no other combination of rhymes other than the three types listed in the quatrain. For this reason, Pushkin concludes the stanza with a couplet with adjacent rhyming lines. The stanza immediately acquired completeness due to the strong rhyming masculine consonance, thanks to the aphoristic ending, which summarizes the content of the stanza. This is how the Onegin stanza was defined, invented by Pushkin for his favorite and, in his words, best work. It consists of 14 verses of iambic tetrameter. Its general scheme appears unusually clear and simple: 1 (abab), 2 (vvgg), 3 (deed), 4 (zhzh) or: AbAb CCdd EffE gg Capital letters indicate female rhymes, lowercase letters indicate masculine rhymes.

But that's not all. The quatrains in the Onegin stanza are arranged in strict sequence. For Pushkin, not only the formal principle of arrangement of quatrains is important, but also the substantive one. The most common and natural rhyme in Russian poetry was cross rhyme, then adjacent, and then encircling. In terms of sound, this combination is the most expressive and diverse. It allowed us to avoid boring monotony. The meaningful role of each quatrain in the stanza is also constant and independent. It is easy to notice that the first four verses set out the theme of the entire stanza, and the couplet closes the theme, summarizes it, or interprets it in a new way. The second and third quatrains develop the theme outlined in the first quatrain.

However, each stanza is both closed (the theme in it is developed and completed) and open, directed to the next stanza, which continues it.

The creation of the effect of a free, improvisational narrative - the illusion of “chatter” - is facilitated by the intonation structure of the novel.

If the periodically repeating structure of a poem, elegy or poetic novel has exactly fourteen lines and one hundred and eighteen syllables, then it is the same Onegin stanza. This number of components is unchanged. Such a stanza is also organic in small poems that represent a sensual outline of the plot. Both visually and intonationally, it can be divided into four parts, each of which is characterized by something that promotes interest and helps to hold the reader’s attention.

Onegin's stanza is a specific form of poetry. A. S. Pushkin created it on May 9, 1823 in order to embody the novel “Eugene Onegin” in verse. This form can rightfully be called the golden stanza of Russian poetry.

The Onegin stanza is based on a skillful interweaving of three forms: the octave, the quatrain and the “Shakespearean” sonnet. The change of male and female rhymes in it is constant and natural. Moreover, the first rhyme of the stanza is always feminine (w - stress on the penultimate syllable), and the last rhyme is masculine (m - stress on the last syllable).

This stanza uses a complex but very harmonious rhyme:

It is interesting that such a sequence in La Fontaine’s poems was of a random nature: he spontaneously “diluted” it with free rhymes, without accepting the constraint of a predetermined framework. This is very reminiscent of the transformations that evolution creates in order to reveal to the Earth a new type of precious stone. This manner of versification was characteristic of the 17th and 18th centuries, who wrote ironic works of frivolous content.

The golden stanza is famous for its ease of embodiment of lyrical poetic ideas. It is especially well suited to lyrical poems and meaningful elegies. Why did other famous poets also use Onegin’s stanza in their works?

This made it possible to reveal the event in a story in verse with the help of well-known ones that can easily be framed in this stanza. The unique structure allows you to apply any emotional tone to the text, with the last two lines being ideal for the conclusion.

Onegin's stanza is a compositionally complete poem. The theme of the stanza is hidden in the first quatrain; in the second quatrain the action develops; the third characterizes the climax; and the couplet at the end is a conclusion in the form of an aphorism. This composition is convenient for writing poems in which the form will be repeated many times, thereby prolonging the event line. Therefore, where there are lyrics and large volumes of work, Onegin’s stanza is often present. This diversity in application gives reason to assert that the composition in it is harmonious and thorough.

1

Karmanovskaya L.V. (Vologda, teacher of Russian language and literature, Municipal Educational Institution Secondary School No. 5)

1. Bondi S.M. Onegin stanza. – in the book: A.S. Pushkin Evgeny Onegin. – M.: Det. lit., 1973.

2. Gasparov M.L. Russian verse of the early 20th century in the comments. – M.: Fortuna Limited, 2001.

3. Dmitriev V.G. By Country of Literature (chapter “Onegin’s Doubles”) – http://detectivebooks.ru (access date 12/03/2016).

4. Ilyushin A.A. On the history of the Onegin stanza - in the book: Concept, work, embodiment // Ed. Professor V.I. Kuleshova - Moscow University Publishing House, 1977.

5. Kvyatkovsky A.P. School poetic dictionary - M.: Bustard, 2000.

6. Onegin’s stanza in foreign language poetry – https://ru.wikipedia (access date 12/03/2016).

7. Rozanov I.N. Early imitations of “Eugene Onegin” // Temporary of the Pushkin Commission. Issue 2 – M., l., 1936, pp. 229-232.

8. Fonyakov I. Harmony and algebra of strings - St. Petersburg, Helikon Plus, 2007.

The main work of A.S. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin” is rightfully considered. It is interesting not only from the point of view of content, but also from the point of view of form.

The subject of the study is the “Onegin stanza”, a special poetic form created by Pushkin for his novel in verse “Eugene Onegin”. How and why did Pushkin turn to this? Did it remain a fact of historical literary criticism or was it in demand and developed after Pushkin?

In order to have an idea of ​​how innovation in the field of versification can develop into a tradition and how an interesting experiment can provide food and space for creative imagination and re-interpretation by other poets, it was necessary to systematize the information available on the topic.

The purpose of the research: to collect and study material about the “Onegin stanza”, and on its basis to try to restore the “biography” of the “Onegin stanza” as a poetic form from Pushkin to the present day.

Job objectives:

1. Understand the structure of the “Onegin stanza”, its features in comparison with other poetic forms.

2. Find material that explains the reasons for Pushkin’s search for a new form for the novel “Eugene Onegin” and the conditions for its emergence.

3. Select and systematize material about the appeal to the “Onegin stanza” as a solid form in the work of Russian poets of the 19th-20th centuries, as well as about its relevance in foreign language poetry.

Sources of research: accessible works of Pushkin scholars, literary developments (popular scientific literary criticism), Internet sources.

Basic methods of work: searching for material, analytical reading, comparing sources, selecting the necessary information, its systematization and generalization.

Poetic stanza, its varieties

“A stanza (from the Greek - “circling”, “turning”) is a combination of several verses (lines) united by a common thought. The length of the verses, their alternation and rhyme system are determined by the structure of the stanza itself. A stanza contains from two to 14 verses.”

The most popular among stanzas are quatrains (sometimes called quatrains). One of the most famous solid strophic forms is the sonnet. Some strophic forms are inextricably linked with the name of the author or work. In Russia, this form is the Onegin stanza.

The structure of the Onegin stanza

Pushkin used in his works (in lyric verse, sometimes in poems) stanzas of various types, already known in the practice of European poets (sonnet, octave). But for “Eugene Onegin” he invented a special stanza. This is the most capacious form of stanza in Russian poetry. It can only be compared to a sonnet, which also has 14 rhymed verses, but in a different arrangement.

In a quatrain, if it is written (as is usually the case) with two pairs of rhymes, the verses can rhyme in three ways: the first quatrain is written with cross rhymes, the second with adjacent rhymes, and the third with encircling rhymes; The stanza ends with a pair of rhyming lines.

The rhyme scheme in the Onegin stanza is: АbAb CCdd EffE gg (capital letters are feminine rhymes, lowercase letters are masculine).

The entire novel, over four hundred stanzas, is written in such a complex alternation of verses! Only in Tatiana’s letter, in Onegin’s letter and in the girls’ song (at the end of the third chapter) the “Onegin stanza” is not observed. “The ease, ease, imperceptibility of the shyness of this form for the reader and the various ways of its semantic and poetic use show what a great master of verse Pushkin was,” writes S. Bondi.

How and why did Pushkin turn to a new form for his novel?

The ubiquitous Wikipedia states: “The stanza was based on a sonnet - a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme. However, in contrast to the sonnet tradition... Pushkin streamlined the rhyming system itself... ".

The Onegin stanza has been analyzed by many poetry scholars. Summarizing their research, B.V. Tomashevsky wrote in 1959: “... searches did not find any tradition in relation to the Onegin stanza. A similar stanza has not yet been found either in Russian or Western poetry preceding Pushkin, or within Pushkin’s own work... Thus, Onegin’s stanza can be considered completely original” [B.V. Tomashevsky. Verse and language. - M.-L., 1959, p. 324; cit. according to the book: 4; 92].

But already in 1977 A.A. Ilyushin questions the statement of B. Tomashevsky: “... the stanza is completely original, but, like many truly original forms of verse, it did not arise out of nowhere, not outside the literary tradition, both Western European and Russian. And the unsuccessful searches for this tradition in the past do not provide grounds to deny it altogether.”

As arguments, the researcher refers to examples from the works of the 18th century French poet Parni. In his poem “War of the Gods” A. Ilyushin discovered verses that rhyme in the same way as the Onegin stanza.

A. Ilyushin considers Byron, the greatest poet of Europe (the poem “The Bride of Abydos”) to be another predecessor of Pushkin.

A.S. himself Pushkin - in a schematic sketch outlining the strophic form of the planned novel in verse, with numbers and a few words in French, did not indicate the order of male and female rhymes. Therefore, Onegin’s stanza often has a kind of “inverted” appearance: where a female verse would correspond to the formula known to us, a male verse goes, and vice versa.

Similar “shifters” O.S. can be found in Pushkin’s poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, written in 1820, i.e. three years before the start of work on Onegin. In the poem “Poltava” (1828) - by the time Pushkin was working on this poem, he already mastered the form of the Onegin stanza - such configurations are more common. [Annex 1]

The scientist and poet Alexander Pavlovich Kvyatkovsky (1888-1968) offered his vision of the prehistory of the Onegin stanza: “Pushkin’s invention of the stanza was perhaps inspired by G. Derzhavin’s odic poem “For the New Year 1797,” consisting of three cycles: in each cycle the first stanza consists of 10 verses, the three stanzas following it contain 14 verses each. Derzhavin’s 14-line stanza consists of four parts: a quatrain with cross rhymes, a couplet with adjacent rhymes, a quatrain with cross rhymes and a final quatrain with enveloping (girdled) rhymes.”

Thus, we can draw a conclusion about both European prehistory and the previous Russian tradition, which A.S. could use. Pushkin while working on Eugene Onegin.

Early imitations and stylizations of Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”

There are many imitations of Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”. It is interesting that neither Zhukovsky nor Pushkin’s lyceum comrades Delvig and Kuchelbecker creatively perceived Pushkin’s novel. The poet Yazykov wrote to his brother in February 1825: “I really didn’t like Onegin. I think that this is the worst of Pushkin’s works...” The reason for such a negative review becomes clear in the following letter, written a few months later: “...I recently read the second chapter of Onegin in manuscript - no better than the first: the same lack of inspiration, the same or rhymed prose."

But among aspiring poets, Pushkin’s novel was an extraordinary success. They were not driven by rivalry with the great poet, it was an active comprehension of the literary fact that struck them. Poets or creative readers had a natural desire to try themselves in a new genre, complementing or altering the theme, trying to master the form, sometimes, as it were, correcting the original from the point of view of their experience. Before the last chapter of Pushkin's novel appeared in print (1832), the first chapter was imitated mainly.

Researcher I.N. Rozanov believes that of all the imitations of “Eugene Onegin” that appeared in print before the end of Pushkin’s novel, the first place, of course, should be given to “Eugene Velsky,” and primarily because “... this is perhaps the first attempt among contemporaries Pushkin to master the Onegin stanza."

The total was published in 1828-1829. two books of the novel “Evgeniy Velsky”. The author was considered unknown for a long time. Later it turned out that the author was the writer M. Voskresensky. Experts who worked with the text note that it shows a struggle to master the Onegin stanza. By the end of Chapter III, Velsky’s author had already perfectly mastered Pushkin’s style.

An appeal to the Onegin stanza in the works of Russian poets of the 19th century.

If during the time of Pushkin and immediately after they preferred to imitate the content and composition of the novel “Eugene Onegin”, and the Onegin stanza was difficult to assimilate, then later, from the middle of the 19th century. imitation comes first as the assimilation of someone else's creativity and imitation - the creation of similar values.

The immediate successor of Pushkin’s idea was Mikhail Lermontov, who wrote the poem “The Tambov Treasurer” (1838) in Onegin’s stanza, which began with an appropriate explanation on this matter: Let me be known as an Old Believer, // I don’t care - I’m even glad // I’m writing Onegin in size; //I sing, friends, in the old way.//

In “Eugene Onegin of Our Time” by the popular mid-19th century satirist Dmitry Minaev (1865), the namesake of Pushkin’s hero acted as a “straight Bazarov” and “cut frogs.” The novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” of our time” is a parody not so much of Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons”, but of articles by D.I. Pisarev, on his interpretation and assessment of Pushkin.

There are works in which the Onegin stanza is, as it were, disguised, and the methods and techniques of disguise can be different.

"The Bride of Abydos" by Byron in 1826. translated into Russian by I.I. Kozlov, who by this time was apparently already familiar with the first chapters of Onegin. In translation, and in his original poems, he used the form of the Onegin stanza. True, O.S. has a kind of “inverted” appearance: where there is a female verse, Kozlov gives a masculine one, and vice versa.

In 1846 written, and in 1859 N.M.'s poem was published Yazykov "Linden trees". It all consists of Onegin stanzas, however, it is maintained in the size not of iambic tetrameter, but of iambic pentameter.

The curious fact of the presence of a disguised Onegin stanza is noted in the poem by N.A. Nekrasov "Poet and Citizen". The poet, the hero of Nekrasov's poem, refers to Pushkin's poems (although not to Onegin), seeing in them a model of perfection and moral guidance. (Final monologue of the Poet: It’s no wonder to finish off someone // Whom you don’t need to finish off...)

In 1896, the hero Pushkin had another double - “Onegin of our days” (“a feuilleton novel in verse”) by the poet L.G. Munstein: “...nine chapters written in clear Onegin stanzas. The heroes, like Minaev’s, are modernized, but in a completely different way. The author’s goal was to ridicule not nihilists, but another type, which in the last years of the last century became widespread among representatives of the so-called “golden youth” - zhuirs, playmakers. Wasting money was all they knew how to do. Minaev’s Onegin had at least some principles, but this one had none.”

Onegin's stanza in the works of Russian poets of the 20th century.

The use of Pushkin's poem and, in particular, the appeal to the form of Pushkin's novel continued in the 20th century.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Maximilian Voloshin began to use the Onegin stanza for thoughtful messages. "Letter". May 1904 Paris: I keep my promise //And close it in a clear verse// My distant message.// Let it be like a quiet evening,// Like the verse of “Onegin” is transparent, // Sometimes famous, sometimes successful.//

“This is interesting,” notes M.L. Gasparov, - probably, the form of the Onegin stanza was associated in the minds of those who wrote and read with the letters of Tatiana to Onegin and Onegin to Tatiana, although these letters in the novel were written not in the Onegin stanza, but astronomically.”

Several poems by Jurgis Baltrušaitis from the 1910s feature the Onegin stanza.

At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. to O.s. poets of the Silver Age addressed, incl. The Symbolist poet Vyach wrote his rather difficult-to-understand poem “Infancy” (1913-1918) in Onegin’s stanza. Ivanov.

In 1937, “The University Poem” by V. Sirin (literary pseudonym of V. Nabokov) was published abroad. In 1927, before devoting himself to novels for a long time, he tested himself in many more genres. This is how the “University Poem” was born - 882 verses, 63 stanzas of 14 lines.

The main subject of study in the poem is the loneliness of an emigrant, a student (Nabokov himself managed to complete a course at Cambridge).

It is known that V. Nabokov translated “Eugene Onegin” in rhymed prose for the English-speaking reader, accompanying the translation with an extensive commentary. And in the poem “On Translaying Onegin,” in two stanzas of which Nabokov’s decision to translate Pushkin’s novel is explained, the Onegin stanza was used by Vladimir Nabokov in English.

"University Poem" is also a tribute to Pushkin. The poem has the same number of lines per stanza and the same structure as in Eugene Onegin. But Nabokov reversed the rhyme order of the Onegin stanza from end to beginning: the 14th line in Pushkin’s scheme becomes the first in Sirin. The author had to replace female rhymes with male rhymes and male rhymes with female ones, so that the stanza began with a female ending and ended with a male one.

The resulting sequence is: AA + bVVb + GGdd + Hedgehog

In Russian literature of the 20th century, the same as in the 19th century. More than once one encounters the use of Pushkin's poem by satirists and humorists. Alexander Khazin’s satirical poem “The Return of Onegin” depicts post-war Leningrad life:

Our Evgeniy gets on the tram.

Oh, poor dear man!

I didn’t know such movements

His unenlightened age.

Fate kept Evgeniy

His leg was only crushed,

And just once, with a push in the stomach,

They told him: “Idiot!”

He, remembering the ancient customs,

I decided to end the dispute with a duel,

He reached into his pocket... But someone stole

His gloves have long been

In the absence of such

Onegin remained silent and became silent.

This stanza was included in the text of the famous report by A.A. Zhdanov, which preceded the adoption of the Resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad” on August 14, 1946. It also contains the following lines: “In Khazin’s poems “The Return of Onegin”, under the guise of a literary parody, slander is given to modern Leningrad.” . However, in the post-war year, the satirical poet used the “Onegin” stanza (reproducing it flawlessly!) for his own purposes: he seemed to remind his readers of what culture they were heirs to, and in his own way called on them to conform to this heritage if possible.

We find an interesting example in Russian emigrant literature of the 20th century. Translator, journalist, “the best Russian poet of the Southern Hemisphere” Valery Pereleshin (1913-1992) presented his huge autobiographical “Poem without a Subject” with a Onegin stanza.

Onegin stanza in foreign language poetry

The most famous foreign language work written in Onegin stanza is the novel in verse by the Anglo-Indian poet Vikram Seth “The Golden Gate” (English: The Golden Gate, 1986), consisting of 690 stanzas of iambic tetrameter, maintaining the prescribed rhyme scheme. The plot of the novel is the life and everyday life of a group of young people from San Francisco in the early 1980s.

Conclusion

So, we are convinced that Onegin’s stanza has its own biography.

What is the reason for other poets to turn to O.S.? “Fourteen-line O.S. truly universal, it is suitable for leisurely, idyllic descriptions, and for everyday sketches, and for conveying rapid action. It’s not for nothing that after Pushkin it was repeatedly in demand.” The goals of the authors who addressed O.S. were different. Many resorted to O.S. as a necessary element for honing your own skills. By way of competition, other stanzas similar to Onegin’s were also invented. The most striking examples are Baratynsky, Vyazemsky in the 19th century and Nabokov in the 20th century.

Will Onegin's stanza be continued? “It’s unlikely that anyone will ever be able to create a completely original work in these stanzas: the author’s signature mark is too visible on them. But some new variations, reconstructions, including new and new attempts to “restore” the text of the half-burnt Chapter X are quite possible!

One thing is clear: successful innovation became the basis for the creation of a stable cultural tradition in versification.

Annex 1

“Shifters” of the Onegin stanza in A.S. Pushkin’s poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”

You, listening to my easy nonsense,

Sometimes she dozed off with a smile;

But sometimes your tender gaze

She threw it more tenderly at the singer...

I’ll make up my mind: a loving talker,

I touch the lazy strings again;

I sit at your feet and again

I'm strumming about the young knight.

But what did I say? Where is Ruslan?

He lies dead in an open field:

His blood will no longer flow,

A greedy crow flies above him,

The horn is silent, the armor motionless,

The shaggy helmet doesn’t move!

(song six)

The morning shadow grew pale,

The wave turned silver in the stream,

A doubtful day was born

In the foggy east.

The hills and forests became clearer,

And the heavens woke up.

Still in inactive repose

The battlefield was dozing;

Suddenly the dream was interrupted: the enemy camp

He rose up with noisy alarm,

A sudden cry of battle broke out;

The hearts of the people of Kiev were troubled;

Running in discordant crowds

And they see: in a field between enemies,

Shining in armor as if on fire,

Wonderful warrior on horseback

It rushes like a thunderstorm, stabs, chops...

(song six)

“Shifters” of the Onegin stanza in A.S. Pushkin’s poem “Poltava”

But he forgives his daughter too:

Let her give God the answer,

Having covered your family with shame,

Forgetting both heaven and law..."

Meanwhile, with an eagle's gaze

In the home circle he is looking for

For yourself brave comrades,

Unshakable, unsaleable.

He revealed everything to his wife:

For a long time in deep silence

He’s already hoarding a menacing denunciation,

And, full of female anger,

Impatient wife

The wife of the evil one hurries him.

In the silence of the night, on the bed of sleep.

Like some spirit, she

He whispers about vengeance, reproaches...

(song one)

He quietly sank into thought.

He portrayed an embarrassed look

Extraordinary excitement.

It seemed that Karl was brought

The desired fight at a loss...

Suddenly with a weak wave of the hand

He moved his regiments against the Russians.

And with them the royal squads

They came together in the smoke in the middle of the plain:

And the battle broke out, the Battle of Poltava!

In the fire, under the red-hot hail,

Reflected by a living wall,

Above the fallen system there is a fresh system

He closes his bayonets. A heavy cloud

Squads of flying cavalry,

With reins and sounding sabers,

When knocked down, they cut from the shoulder.

(song six)

Bibliographic link

Rozhina E.S. BIOGRAPHY OF THE ONEGIN STROPHE // Start in science. – 2017. – No. 5-1. – P. 120-124;
URL: http://science-start.ru/ru/article/view?id=770 (access date: 07/24/2019).


Onegin stanza. I think there is no need to explain anything further. After all, almost everyone read “Eugene Onegin” at school, and some even remember something by heart. Therefore, you can just copy the sample and write your own “Onegin stanza”. But for those who are interested in the details and features associated with this poetic form, I will give more detailed explanations.
So, what is the “Onegin stanza”? The directory states the following:
This is a solid form in Russian lyric-epic poetry, first introduced into it by A. S. Pushkin in the novel “Eugene Onegin”.
That is, this is one of the common solid forms popular in Russian poetry. In addition to Pushkin, such authors as Vyacheslav Ivanov, Maximilian Voloshin, Mikhail Lermontov and even many foreign authors wrote their poems in this form; for example, the novel in verse by the Anglo-Indian poet Vikram Seth, “The Golden Gate,” is written in the “Onegin stanza.”
Many experts classify it (the Onegin stanza) as a type of sonnet. And in many ways they are right, because this stanza has 14 lines (verses), like any classical sonnet. In some ways it is similar to an ordinary Shakespearean sonnet, but differs from it in the rhyming system in quatrains (quatrains). This specific rhyme is the peculiarity of the “Onegin stanza”. Now in more detail:
The rhyme scheme of the Onegin stanza looks like this: AbAb CCdd EffE gg(capital letters indicate female rhyme, lowercase letters indicate masculine rhyme). In this poetic form, alternating male and female rhymes is mandatory! Moreover, this must be done in the sequence in which it was given by Pushkin in “Eugene Onegin”.
You can depict it something like this:
wives
husband
wives
husband

Women
wives
husband
husband

Women
husband
husband
wives

Husband
husband

The rhyme system is as follows: in the first quatrain there are cross rhymes (female and masculine), in the second quatrain there are adjacent rhymes (two female and two male), in the third there are encircling rhymes; The stanza ends with a couplet with a masculine rhyme.
The preferred meter for this form is iambic tetrameter. This is a fairly simple and common size.
Some sources give the following recommendation regarding the content of this poetic form:
“Usually the first quatrain in a Onegin stanza gives the theme, the second the development of this theme, the third the climax, and the couplet the ending.”
But compliance with this “plan” is no longer necessary, since there are no clear rules in this regard - everything is at the discretion of the author. And remember, you always have a good model for your own “Onegin stanza” - these are the immortal lines from the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin”, written by our... Well, you know who!
Here is my version of this poem:

The syllable of the poet’s stanza is elegant:
There are fourteen verses in total.
It has aiguillettes and epaulettes
And the gloss of fitted silks.

Onegin stanza rhyme
Shows off deftly in three types.
And simple people and high society -
Everyone knows Pushkin's sonnet!

A wonderful “poem” from school
It burns in the reader's hearts.
Raised by the classics
Captivates the soul like a demon.

And you, my friend, reveal your talent,
Flashing the “Onegin stanza”!

Definition of "Onegen stanza". This is the stanza in which the novel in verse by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” was written, 14 lines of iambic tetrameter. The stanza was based on a sonnet - a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme.

Pushkin's iambic tetrameter in "Eugene Onegin" (hereinafter referred to as the Onegin stanza), as in other works of the poet, has extraordinary diversity, it is very flexible, it changes its rhythm and sound in accordance with the content of a particular stanza, this or that episode. Of the huge number of poems that make up the 8 chapters of the novel, approximately only one fourth retains all 4 accents.

In the remaining three-quarters of the total number of poems, the poet uses a wide variety of variations, obtained by omitting certain stresses in the iambic scheme. In addition, the “hyphenations” used by the poet add variety when the verse does not coincide with the syntactic division of speech. Finally, when necessary, this variety of verse is created by appropriate instrumentation, the use of alliteration and assonance.

Let's give a few examples.

Let's take two stanzas from Chapter V - a description of the ball in the Larins' house.

Monotonous and crazy
Like a young whirlwind of life,
A noisy whirlwind swirls around the waltz;
Couple flashes after couple

In the first two verses, the usual pattern of iambic tetrameter is changed: only 2 strong stresses are left in each verse. Involuntary and

the following verses are read with the same accents omitted, in accordance with the “given” rhythm:

... A noisy whirlwind swirls around the waltz;
Weta flashes behind the couple.

Uniform omissions of stress on the same places of the metrical scheme create a slow and smooth rhythm, well suited to the image of a smooth dance. But in the next stanza there is a description of the mazurka:

The Mazurka sounded. It happened
When the mazurka thunder roared,
Everything in the huge hall was shaking,
The parquet cracked under his heel...

The character of the verse immediately changed. Almost all the stresses of the metrical scheme of iambic tetrameter fell into place. This made the rhythm of the verse more energetic. The result is a bright, lively picture of a mazurka. The musicality of the verse of “Eugene Onegin”, achieved by a rich rhythmic pattern “embroidered along the outline” of iambic tetrameter, and the selection of words not only of the desired meaning, but also of the appropriate sound, begins from the very first chapter of the novel. So, in the description of the beginning of the performance: “And the curtain rises and makes noise”
- alliteration, creating the impression of a rising curtain.

In the XXIII stanza of chapter two, in the portrait of Olga:

How sweet is love's kiss;
Eyes like the sky are blue,
Smile, flaxen curls

the omission of metrical stresses and the constant repetition of the smooth sound “L” gives the verse a peculiar shade of lightness, quite consistent with the character of the painted portrait. As an example of the use of hyphenation to create the impression of fast, impetuous movement, excitement, one can cite verses from stanza XXXVIII of chapter three:

Here's closer! jump... and into the yard
Evgeniy “ah!” - and lighter than a shadow
Tatyana jumped into another hallway...
You can find many such examples.

Before explaining the originality of the “Onegin stanza,” we should recall what is called a stanza in general: a part of a poem consisting of two or more verses united by one theme, a rhyme system, and a repeating metrical structure. Depending on the number and specific alternation of rhymes, the stanzas are called couplets, three-verses (terzas), quatrains (quatrains), etc. Reading and analyzing Pushkin’s lyrical works, we have already dealt with various stanzas (for example, with the quatrains in “Anchar” , with an octave (octave) in “Autumn”).

Why did Pushkin need a new stanza, specially invented by him, for “Eugene Onegin”? The fact is that the usual, most often short, stanza of lyric poems could not be suitable for a novel in verse, for an epic work that paints various pictures of reality, an “encyclopedia of Russian life.” It is, of course, difficult to do without stanzas completely in such a large work. It was necessary to create a long, capacious stanza that would allow one to contain some complete thought, an entire episode or picture, for example, a completed landscape.

The poet turns to a 14-line stanza. But if in such a large stanza one rhyme system is used (for example, only cross rhyme or only paired rhyme), it will be too monotonous:

And Pushkin creates a stanza in which the three most common methods of rhyming are consistently used. So, the “Onegin stanza” consists of three quatrains with cross, pair and encircling rhymes and a final couplet. This rhyme system gives the stanza grace and lightness. All stanzas of the novel, with the exception of Tatyana’s letter, Onegin’s letter and the girls’ song, where the “Onegin stanza” is not used, strictly adhere to the strophic scheme created by Pushkin.

This testifies to the enormous and persistent work of the poet, to the subtle, one might say, jewelry finishing of the text of the work. As a result, in the form of a novel, a very thoughtful one, the stylistic unity to which all chapters are subordinated is strengthened. Each stanza of the novel represents something, to a certain extent, complete. In accordance with this, often the last couplet of a stanza is, as it were, a semantic conclusion, a generalization, sometimes it sounds like an aphorism