Free verse - jiyushi (English)

Japanese: 自由詩 - じゆうし(英語表記)free verse
Free verse - jiyushi (English)

It broadly refers to a style of poetry that does not follow traditional rhymes. The term free verse is derived from vers libre, a term used in France in the late 19th century to free poetry from the twelve-syllable alexandrin of classical poetry. It was practiced by poets such as Laforgue, and T. S. Eliot was also influenced by it to write free verse with a rhythm closer to that of spoken language. In England, where there was originally a tradition of blank verse, an iambic pentameter that does not follow regular rhymes, free verse such as Matthew Arnold's English Straits of Dover (1867) was developed as an advanced form of blank verse in the late 19th century. The development of free verse in America began with Whitman's bold attempt at line-divided prose in Leaves of Grass (1855), which boldly ignored the rhymes of traditional English poetry. This prose tradition was inherited by the Imagist free verse movement of Ezra Pound and others in the early 20th century. It was a bolder change than the free verse style of English poetry, and put into practice "writing poetry according to musical phrases rather than relying on the traditional metronome-like rhythm."

In Japan during the Taisho period, when colloquial free verse was born as a reaction against the traditional literary fixed-form poetry, one of its leaders, Hagiwara Sakutaro, stated in "About the Rhythm of Free Verse" that it was "melody-based" rather than "rhythm-based." Compared to tanka and haiku, modern Japanese poetry originally lacked fixed elements, but it has undergone a transformation from the external rhythm of 7-5 rhythm to the internal rhythm of free verse.

[Shunichi Niikura]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

伝統的な韻律によらない詩風を広くいう。自由詩ということばはもともと古典主義の詩行の十二音節(アレクサンドラン)alexandrinから詩を解放するために、19世紀後半のフランスで用いられた「自由韻文詩」vers libreに由来したもので、ラフォルグなどが実践し、英詩でもT・S・エリオットがその感化で話しことばのリズムに近い自由な詩を書いた。もともと無韻詩blank verseという、規則的な脚韻を踏まない弱強五歩格の伝統のあるイギリスでは、その発展した形として、19世紀後半にマシュー・アーノルドの『ドーバー海峡』(1867)のような自由詩が生まれた。アメリカにおける自由詩の発展は、ホイットマンが『草の葉』(1855)で、従来の英詩の韻律を大胆に無視して行分け散文を試みたことに端を発している。この散文的伝統を継承して20世紀初頭にエズラ・パウンドたちのイマジズムの自由詩運動が展開された。それは英詩の自由詩よりも大胆な変革で、従来の韻律の「メトロノームのような拍子によらないで、音楽の楽句(フレーズ)に従って詩を書くこと」を実践した。

 日本でも大正期に、従来の文語定型詩への反動として口語自由詩が生まれたとき、その指導者の一人萩原朔太郎(はぎわらさくたろう)は、「拍子本位」でなく「旋律本位」であると、『自由詩のリズムについて』のなかで述べている。短歌や俳句に比べたら、もともと定型の要素に乏しい日本の近代詩であるが、七五調の外在律から自由詩の内在律へと変化を遂げてきている。

[新倉俊一]

出典 小学館 日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について 情報 | 凡例

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