Homonymous and tautological rhymes in K. Simonov’s poetry

The article explores homonymous and tautological rhymes in K. Simonov’s poetry as a form of language game. The study of rhymes in the author’s poetry, as well as the appeal to the categories of play-element poetics in connection with his work, is realized for the first time. The term “polysemantic rhyme” is introduced to denote the transitional case between the two types of rhymes which is often found in Simonov’s poetry. The dynamics of rhyme preferences and their functions throughout Simonov’s work is revealed. In the early poems, he actively uses homonymous rhymes, that have a characterizing and world-modeling function. Rhyme becomes part of a more complex game and is reinforced by repetitions of similar-root and similar-sounding words, that create a dense semantic grid of important to Simonov concepts. In mature creativity, the poet often turns to polysemantic rhyme, and if he puts homonyms at the end of the line, they does not always rhyme with each other. While maintaining the previous functions, traditional humorous and compositional ones are added to them, the latter is associated with the separation of lines as independent aphorisms.