Onegin stanza refers to the verse form used by Alexander Pushkin in his interpersonal epic Eugene Onegin. The work is (almost wholly) written in verses of iambic tetrameter with the unusual rhyme scheme "aBaBccDDeFFeGG", where the lowercase letters represent feminine rhymes (i.e., rhymed on the penultimate syllable) and the uppercase representing masculine rhymes (on the final syllable). Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Aleksandr Pushkin was a Russian poet and a founder of modern Russian literature Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Пу́шкин) (June 6 (May 26, O.S.), 1799 - February 10 (January 29, O.S.), 1837), Russian author, whom many consider the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. ... Eugene Onegin (Yevgeny Onegin, Евгений Онегин) is a novel in verse written by Aleksandr Pushkin. ... An iamb is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet: And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea (Anapaest tetrameter) (Byron, The Destruction of Sennacherib) You who are bent and bald and blind (Iambic tetrameter, except for the first foot which is a trochee) (W... A rhyme is the association of words with similar sounds, a technique most often used in poetry. ... A rhyme is the association of words with similar sounds, a technique most often used in poetry. ...

Unlike other traditional forms, such as the Petrarchan sonnet or Shakespearean sonnet, the Onegin stanza does not divide into smaller stanzas of four lines or two in an obvious way. There are many different ways the sonnet can be divided; for example the first four lines can form a quartrain or instead join with the "cc" to form a sestet. The form's flexiblity allows the author more scope to change how the semantic sections are divided from sonnet to sonnet, while keeping the sense of unity provided by keeping a fixed rhyme scheme. Also being written in iambic tetrameter gives the stanzas a stronger rhythm than sonnets which use the more common iambic pentameter. A Petrarchan sonnet, also called the Italian sonnet, is a sonnet comprising an octave and a closing sestet. ... The Shakespearean sonnet, also called the Elizabethan or English sonnet, is a sonnet comprising three quatrains and a final couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg. ... Iambic pentameter is a meter in poetry, consisting of lines with five feet (hence pentameter) in which the iamb is the dominant foot (hence Iambic). Iambic rhythms are quite easy to write in English and iambic pentameter is among the most common metrical forms in English poetry. ...

Jon Stallworthy's 1987 "The Nutcracker" used this stanza form, and Vikram Seth's 1986 novel The Golden Gate is written wholly in Onegin stanzas. 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Vikram Seth (born June 20, 1952) is an Indian novelist and poet. ... 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Golden Gate (ISBN 0394549740) is Vikram Seths first novel. ...

External links

• Tetrameter.com (http://www.tetrameter.com) A website featuring work written in tetrameter by various poets
  • On Translating Eugene Onegin (http://www.tetrameter.com/nabokov.htm) A poem by Vladimir Nabokov written in Onegin Stanzas
  • Selections from The Golden Gate (http://www.tetrameter.com/seth.htm)