This article is a comparative description of two systems of verse: Russian (syllabo-tonic) and Estonian, in which quantitative metrics along with traditional syllabic, syllabo-tonic and tonic are widely used. The description is not done through the prism of purely verse studies but by explicating the personal poetic experience of the author, who is equally successful in creating poems in both Russian and Estonian. Through a kind of autodescription combined with observations upon the best samples of Russian classical poetry, ancient and new European poetry, Estonian oral and written poetics the author comes to a number of valuable conclusions of both practical and theoretical nature (the necessity of overcoming the predominance of "rhyme" mode of thinking in Russian poetry the negative 62 role of formal grammar means which allow even a poet without any real talent to create poetry with relative ease). On the one hand, these findings are of importance for comparative poetry in all its branches (metrics, rhythmics, phonics) and on the other hand are of undoubted benefit for all those interested in the development of both Russian and Estonian poetry in their exploration of new poetic forms and in their mutual enrichment artistically
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