The thesis provides an analysis of the form of 1630s–1680s Ukrainian poetry. Metrics, rhytmics, rhyming and stanzaic structure are the main aspects of the research. Prior to the direct analysis there takes place a review of scientific works related to the study of the ancient Ukrainian versification, along with the detailed description of the features of Ukrainian versification in the previous period (the end of 16th cent. – 1620s). The general flow of analysis is divided into 2 parts: 1) 1630s–1640s ("Petro Mohyla Period"); 2) 1650s–1680s ("The Period of Ruin"). Percentage shares of the main syllabic meters in the metrical repertoire of the given period poetry have been calculated (by works and by verses). The ratios of isosyllabic, anisosyllabic and polymetric works, stanzaic and non-stanzaic forms, different types of rhyming have been found out. Relatively complete statistics concerning the parameters of the form of Old Ukrainian poetry (1630s–1680s) are presented for the first time in science. The well-known thesis about two intertwined artistic trends in Old Ukrainian poetry (Latin-Polish one and Byzantine-Church Slavonic one) got further development. In addition, many issues with respect to the author's attribution of individual works have been resolved. Also, the mistakes of author's attribution made by prior scientists and compilers of academic anthologies have been pointed to.
The object of the research is the poetic works which were written in Old Ukrainian during 30s–80s of the 17th century. Among these works there are texts of the following authors: A. Skul'skiy, Y. Volkovych, S. Pochas'kiy, J. Sedovs'kiy, G. Butovych, A. Fylypovych, K. Trankvilion-Stavrovets'kiy, Y. Galatovs'kiy, L. Baranovych, V. Jasyns'kiy, I. Armashenko, A. Radyvylovs'kiy, I. Velychkovs'kiy, D. Tuptalo, P. Popovych-Guchens'kiy. The research also includes many anonymous texts, in particular: "Hymnology", "Euphony", "The Lament for an Accident of the Ostrog Citizens", "Emblems and Laments", "Poems to the Gospel for Iconographers", "Acts of the Holy Apostles", "Poems on the Apocalypse", the series of heraldic epigrams, religious-philosophical and historical poems.
The methodology of research is based on the statistical calculations which are commonly used in the science of versification. The comparative-historical method is also widely used.
The study discovered that Ukrainian literary poetry in 1630s–1680s was developing at the crossroads of two traditions: Latin-Polish one and Byzantine-Church Slavonic one. The first tradition that was cultivated in Jesuit educational institutions and Jesuit-type schools (including Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium) dominated. Latin education which was considered as the main environment of cultural ecumene at that time, came to Ukraine with the assistance of Polish one (and largely in its interpretation). Students mastered the science of versification primarily from Latin poetics courses. Applying the rules learned from the school desks to the Ukrainian or Polish accent system, the poets created well shaped isosyllabic poems of 13-syllable (7+6) or 11 syllable (5+6) scansion, with feminine clauses and adjacent rhyming patterns. Poems of the Byzantine type were created in the context of unregulated syllabic heterogeneity. Numerous intersperses of other meters into the fabric of texts with certain prevailing rhythm (as well as conscious violations of "correct" position of the caesura in some syllabic poems) can be also considered as the results of Byzantine sympathy. Rhyming endings in anisosyllabic works also tended to the feminine pattern but not so consistently as in the isosyllabic poems. The influence of Byzantine artistic and style dominant was kept in Ukrainian literature until the mid. of the 17th cent., although its decline is notable since the foundation of the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium. In the 2nd half of the 17th cent. this tendency is almost completely superseded by the Polish-Latin scholasticism.
Statistical data presented in the work outline the picture of Ukrainian versification in the 1630s–1680s, complement our understanding of the Old Ukrainian poetry in general. The prospect of further research is, in particular, the description of other elements of poetics of the analyzed period, namely generics, architectonics, tropes, poetic syntax. It is also necessary to analyze the form of poetry in the next period (the end of the 17th cent. – the beginning of the 18th cent.), which coincides with the reign of I. Mazepa. Also, there is a relevance for working on the bibliography and author's attribution of ancient texts and searching for the new literary monuments of antiquity.
