Andrej Voznesenskij is one of the better-known and more original representatives of the current innovative trend in Russian poetry. Study of his verse may provide some indication of the meters being employed by present-day poets and of possible new developments taking place in Russian versification.

Several characteristics which complicate study of Voznesenskij's meters must be pointed out…. His poems often lack the formal clarity and precision found in a more traditional type of poetry. Syllables may be sporadically added or dropped in a meter which otherwise conforms to classical metrical schemes, two or more meters may be utilized in one poem (polymetrical verse), passages in free verse may be inserted, words with a differing number of syllables after the final stress may be rhymed (such as feminine with dactylic), the order of rhymes may vary from stanza to stanza, and sections in prose may be inserted. In some...