Raeshnyi Stikh

(raek verse), a type of folk verse whose sole principles of phonetic organization are division into lines and a rhyme, usually paired, at the end of the lines. There is no fixed pattern in the number and distribution of syllables and stresses. Raeshnyi stikh was the form in which facetious sayings were recited by raeshniki in the theater of movable pictures called the raek, which was usually located near a balagan. It was also used for the facetious sayings of the dedy-raeshniki (grandfather-raeshniki) of the balagan shows, in scenes of such folk dramas as Tsar Maximilian, and in captions for lubki (cheap popular) prints. Raeshnyi stikh was used in Russian poetry of the 17th and 18th centuries but was soon replaced by syllabic and then syllabo-tonic verse. It is encountered later in stylized form in such works as A. S. Pushkin’s Tale of the Priest and the verses of D. Bednyi.