О происхождении и природе украинских ямбов в сравнении с русским стихом

This article studies the emergence and development of the iambic tetrameter in Ukrainian poetry. Its genesis and evolution are examined against the background of Russian metrical verse. The evolution of the Ukrainian iamb’s features is traced from 1761 to Taras Shevchenko. The main hypothesis of this study is that, despite a certain dependence on Russian models, the rhythm of Ukrainian verse develops independently: while the early forms of the Ukrainian tetrameter are closely connected with the poetic work of Mikhail Lomonosov and Alexander Sumarokov, afterward the originality of the Ukrainian iamb intensifies. The Ukrainian tetrameter represents a new evolutionary stage of European metrical versification, which is drifting further away from the continental prosodic canons.