Nederlands en Duits versritme in de vroegmoderne tijd

Abstract

This study deals with the problem of the establishment of iambic versification in early modern European poetry and is based on Dutch and German examples of the iambic tetrameter. The findings indicate that despite the similarity of certain tendencies in the use of rhythmic structures, there are significant differences in the rhythm of early Dutch and German iambic tetrameters. These differences likely arise from the different ways in which the verse traditions developed. The author proposes that the technique of writing Dutch syllabotonic verse had much evolved and by the late 1500s and early 1600s was at a much higher stage of development than the German syllabotonic verse of the 1st half of the 17th century that appeared after the revolutionary reform of M. Opitz.