On certain quantitative approaches to periodization of Jorge Luis Borges’s poetry

The paper deals with the problem of periodization of the poetic creativity of Jorge Luis Borges. The study tests a well-known hypothesis that Borges’s poetic corpus is divided into two parts. This point of view is well-established in modern Borges studies. To test the hypothesis, Burrows’s Delta is used as one of the most authoritative and widespread stylometric methods, based on the analysis of the distribution of the most frequent words. The distribution of the poetic forms in Borges’s poetry collections is also analyzed. As a result, the hypothesis is not confirmed. The study reveals that Borges’s poetic corpus is divided into three parts. The first group is Borges’s early books, marked by the influence of ultraism (1920s). The second group is collections written by Borges during his maturity (1960–70s) using forms intrinsic to Spanish poetic tradition. The third group is the later poetic volumes (1980s) characterized by a synthesis of conservative and modernist forms. Moreover, using the Stanza morphoanalyzer revealed a significant trend in Borges’s poetics: a decrease in the proportion of adjectives towards the end of Borges’s career with an increase in the proportion of verbs, which helps create the effect of a “dry” style at a later stage.