Damaged Toy in the Poetry for the Little Ones by Agniia Barto and Ivan Nekhoda

Abstract

The focus of the article by Iu. V. Domanski “Damaged Toy in the Poetry for the Little Ones by Agniia Barto and Ivan Nekhoda” is on one of the early works by Agniia Barto, namely, her collections of poems entitled “Toys” (1936). In some of the verses, the poet promotes the idea of creating toys (such as in “Plain” and “Little Horse”); in others, Barto condemns destructive behaviour (“Little Hare”). The third group of poems from this cycle, while celebrating creative tendencies, reaches this goal through the description of damage reduction done to the toys. Polymetry, as well as special stanza combination, could be named as major poetic devices. The article provides a close comparison between Barto’s poetry and verses written by the Ukrainian poet Ivan Nekhoda (in his poetic cycle “My Dolls”).   Keywords: Agniia Barto, poetic cycle “Toys”, poetics, polymetry, stanza organization, author-narrator, Ivan Nekhoda, poetic cycle “My Dolls”.