Tag Archives: alliteration

Rannaicheacht Ghairid

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Irish poetry.

• Rannaicheacht Ghairid (ron-a’yach cha’r-rid) (versification with shortened line) is:
○ written in any number of quatrains with uneven lines.
○ syllabic 3-7-7-7.
○ alliterated, 2 word alliteration in each line.
○ rhymed a a b a, with the end word of L3 internally rhymed in the first half or L4. 

x x a
x x x x x x a
x x x x x x b
x x b x x x a. (internal rhyme may be in any position within the line)

Ring of Love by Barbara Hartman & Judi Van Gorder

Sparrows swing
on sunflower stems to wring
last seeds that cling to dead heads.
Summer sheds while sparrows sing.

Maiden weds,
that night the young groom beds
his love with tender touch. Glows,
pleased he sews blood upon threads.

True love grows,
this fair knight and maid’s life shows
summer love can thrive in spring
blessed by a ring of sparrows.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1170#ghairid
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example

Calling Dawn Patrol (Rannaicheacht Ghairid)

Cawing crows
seemed caucused in raucous rows
as though the thought of my sleep
ought to deeply be opposed.

On this block
lives a hearty red-tailed hawk;
what he needs to do today
is chase ‘way this flippin’ flock.

A gnawing
knowledge keeps thoughts from thawing,
if a raptor should descend
might that end callous cawing.

© Lawrencealot – October 8, 2014

Visual template

Rannaicheacht Ghairid

Alliterated Alphabet Poem poetry form

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Alliterated alphabet poem, this variation is written with almost every word within the line beginning with the same letter of the alphabet.

Tail Wagging by Judi Van Gorder

Telling two trollops to take time to testify.
Unrelenting umpires usually understand
Vesting vapid vulgarities
Without woefully worrying wanton women.

My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.
 

Related forms: ABC Poems, Abecedarius, Alliterated Alphabet Poem, Alphabeastiary, Iroha Mokigusari, Twenty-six letter, twenty-six words

My example

Church Dance (Alliterated Alphabet Poem)

Being behind bothered brother Brown
Causing cautious Cardinals cold concern.
Did daily dances drive decorum down?
Evidently entertainment’s easily earned.

© Lawrencealot – September 2, 2014

Triversen

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The Triversen, (triple verse sentence), is a sentence broken into three lines. It has also been referred to as a “verset”, a surge of language in one breath.

The Triversen was originated by William Carlos Williams as a “native American” poetic form of the 20th century. According to Lewis Turco in his Book of Forms, it is “one of the most innovative things done to modern free-verse.” It introduced the “variable foot” to free verse. As best as I can understand, the “variable foot” is a phrase or portion of a sentence contained within a line.

The Triversen is:
• accentual. The rhythm of normal speech, employing 1 to 4 strong stresses per line.
• stanzaic, written in any number of tercets. Each tercet is a sentence broken into 3 uneven lines, each an independant clause.
• grammatical. The sentence is broken by line phrasing or lineating or sense units. There should be 3 units. L1 is a statement of fact or observation, L2 and L3 should set the tone, imply a condition or associated idea, or carry a metaphor for the original statement.
• unrhymed.
• alliterated. Alliteration accentuates stress.

Eventide by Judi Van Gorder 8-20-05

Sunset silence is interrupted
by a cursory
“rib-it”.

Diminishing 
sun slides 
behind the horizon.

Twilight arrives 
with a hic-up 
and a wink.

 

On Gay Wallpaper by William Carlos Williams

The green-blue ground
is ruled with silver lines
to say the sun is shining.

And on this moral sea
of grass or dreams like flowers
or baskets of desires

Heaven knows what they are
between cerulean shapes”
laid regularly round.

Mat roses and tridentate
leaves of gold
threes, threes, and threes.

Three roses and three stems
the basket floating
standing in the horns of blue.

Repeated to the ceiling
to the windows
where the day

Blow in
the scalloped curtains to
the sound of rain

Copied from: http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=618
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example

water lilies

Water Lilies (Triversen)

Water lilies on pond’s surface
lie in wait
just as though expecting us.

Posed on pads in proud profusion
as they might for Claude Monet;
only now, awaiting us.

Water lilies seem eternal
you and I
have just begun.

© Lawrencealot – August 27, 2014

Droighneach

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Droighneach (drá-yi-nah, ‘thorny’) is a traditional Irish quatrain stanza of 9-to-13-syllable lines alternately rimed (abab), always on 3-syllable words, with at least two cross-rimes linking the pair of lines in each half and involving those lines’ end-words, plus alliteration in every line, usually between the end-word and the preceding stressed word—always the case for a quatrain’s last line. Being Irish, it also requires the dunedh, meaning it should end where it began (opening word or phrase or line repeated at the end). It is also described here:

http://www.thepoetsgarret.com/celtic1.html#dro
…and here:
http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1172
My thanks to Gary Kent Spain, aka Venicebard on Allpoetry.
I have copied below both links he provided, unfortunately neither poet was able to follow the first requirement – ending each line with a three-syllable word.
Author Notes accompanying Gary’s Poem below:
My hobby since childhood—never quite grew up! In the 80s, when I was a programmer and had tons of money but no life, I acquired a collection of micro-scale (1/300) WW2 Russian front stuff: once counted just draft horses and had over a thousand, plus several hundred cavalry. Now, of course, no time nor space for them, so the above is all in my mind at the moment.
God’s Paintbrush (Self-Satirical Droighneach)
I’m a military miniature:  commander,
whose panzer division invades a vast library.
No adversary yet:  I’d prefer to philander
but, in all candor, can’t, be’ng lead—quite the contrary!
I’m ten millimeters tall, dark-haired, and handsomely
decked-out in dandy garb, my honor unimpaired.
A fine match! had God not dared, rudely, randomly,
to make me small, handy for his wars, all undeclared.
I see God now, armed with air-brush, advancing
to paint pants with coats field grey, dapper and debonair.
Care He’ll take to touch hands and face with flesh, enhancing
our stance’s appearance, dirt-dappled and doctrinaire.
Shall we commend God’s industry?  Call His quandary
fond, airy prospect of war-games couched on calendar.
His hand arrays us, ready by time’s boundary.
I’m a military miniature:  come and err.
[And, dear jongleur, please pronounce err properly, else all will end up unseemly and up in the ‘air’!]
_________________________

Droighneach (dra’iy-nach) Gaelic, is Oglachas, straying from some of the stringent rules of dán direach yet adding other requirements which make the frame no less difficult. It is sometimes referred to as “the thorny” because of the degree of difficulty in writing this ancient Irish Verse Form that employs cross rhyme and requires 3 syllable end words.

The Droighneach is:
• a loose stanzaic form usually written with any number of octaves but it could be quatrains.
• syllabic with each line with 9 to 13 syllables.
• terminated, written with 3 syllable end words.
• rhymed, with alternating end rhyme abab cdcd etc.
• composed with cross rhyme. There are at least two cross-rhymes in each couplet and alliteration in each line; usually the final word of the line alliterates with the preceding stressed word, this is always true of the last line.
• written with the defining features of most Celtic poems, cywddydd (harmony of sound) and dunadh (beginning and ending the poem with the same word, phrase or line.)

(x x d) b x x x (x x a)
x x x x a x x x (x x b)
x x x x x b (x x a)
x x x x a x x (x x b)
x x x x x d x x (x x c)
x x x c x x x x x x (x x d)
x x d x x x x x x (x x c)
x x x x c x (d x d)
Incomprehensible by Judi Van Gorder
Brutality bursts in the streets of Fallujah,
a plethora of purposeless mutilation,
the execution, a disgrace to Allah,
a disgusting coup d’ etat in jubilation.
Humanity is not served by the criminals,
victim’s funerals expose the amorality.
A pity mankind oft’ acts as cannibals,
animals display less base brutality.
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?/topic/1172-droighneach/
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on the PMO resource.
____________

Droighneach (dra’iy-nach):
A loose stanza form. Each line can have from nine to thirteen syllables, and it always ends in a trisyllabic word. There is rhyming between lines one and three, two and four, etc. Stanzas can have any number of quatrains. There are at least two cross-rhymes in each couplet and alliteration in each line; usually the final word of the line alliterates with the preceding stressed word, and this is always true of the last line.

x x d b x x x (x x a)
x x x x a x x x (x x b)
x x x x x b (x x a)
x x x x a x x (x x b)
x x x x x d x x (x x c)
x x x c x x x x x x (x x d)
x x d x x x x x x (x x c)
x x x x c x (x x d)

Silken Lady
A silken coat enhances her elegance,
casually clad, but warm and enfolding
her slim limbs in folds of furry fragrance;
green eyes gaze haughtily- a heart beholding.
She licks her lips, a pink tongue seen- disappears;
a lazy yawn, with blinking eyes, amazes,
her devoted audience she domineers.
A soft scream- hairs on end- her purr appraises.
©Leny Roovers 29-10-2004
Pasted from http://www.thepoetsgarret.com/celtic1.html#dro
__________________________________

My example poem

Grandiose (Droighneach)

Contemplate before the jongleurs congregate.
If your work is great, that work they may elevate
some day (some say you’ have to wait and die), consecrate
what they appreciate, and critics nominate.

Given my more likely fate (if you are wondering)
to wander in obscurity (we populate
the wide world, mate) and cause laughs by my blundering.
To be but an underling is hard to contemplate.

© Lawrencealot – August 8, 2014

Visual Template

Droighneach

Deibhidhe

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Deibhidhe
The deibhidhe is an Irish form. In English it is more often spelt deibide, but you still have to pronounce it jayvee. (The Irish language uses a lot of unlikely-looking clusters of consonants, and most of them seem to be either pronounced as “v” or not pronounced at all. Exercise: pronounce the name of the poet Medbh McGuckian.) 
Here’s a deibhidhe about the time I spent working in the oil industry:
No, Watercolour…
Of a subject dire I sing:
Reservoir Engineering
I could never understand –
A queer and quaggy quicksand!
I was sent away to learn
About it in climes northern,
But while at Herriot-Watt
My zeal did not run riot.
All the years I worked in oil,
My conscience was in turmoil.
I floundered through the fog
Like a bogged-down wan warthog.
My colleagues would make a fuss.
Those strata – were they porous?
It bothered me not a whit
How the drill bit grey granite.
The mysteries of the rock
Made me feel like a pillock.
Underground movements of gas
Alas, my mind can’t compass.
I don’t work there any more,
Redundancy my saviour.
Not a tragedy at all –
A small but welcome windfall!
There was a TV advert for an airline some years ago which featured the following exchange between two passengers on a flight to Aberdeen. Large outgoing American: “D’you work in oil?” Weedy-looking bespectacled Brit: “No, watercolour.” Hence the title. Herriot-Watt University is situated near Edinburgh and offers week-long courses on such arcane subjects as Reservoir Engineering, cleverly sugaring the pill by making them coincide with the Edinburgh Festival.
As for the form, each stanza has 4 lines of 7 syllables each, rhyming aabb, and both of these rhymes are deibide rhymes i.e. in the first line of each rhyming pair, the rhyming syllable is stressed, and in the second it is unstressed.
The form also demands an aicill rhyme between lines 3 and 4 i.e. the word at the end of line 3 rhymes with a word somewhere in the middle of line 4 (as whit/bit, gas/alas above). 
Finally, there must be alliteration between the last word of each stanza and the preceding stressed word (as quaggy quicksand, welcome windfall above).
This amounts to a lot of constraints for the fourth line to satisfy in the space of only 7 syllables. I found this form a tough one, except when writing the last stanza. Perhaps I was getting into the swing of it by then.
Thanks to Bob Newman for his wonderful Volecentral resource site.
Specifications restated:
Isosyllabic: 7/7/7/7
Rhymed: aabb
My example poem
Night Nymph     (Deibhidhe)
I was mesmerized, entranced
when she stood in the entrance.
Just one glance at her’d confer
instantly a pure pleasure
The nymph caused my heart to sing
and set my nerves to dancing
I viewed her in near undress
and dreamed she’d be my mistress.
But it was not meant to be,
this maiden oh so pretty.
for she was gone with the sun
a nighttime visit vision.
© Lawrencealot – April 10, 2014
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Paired Triquin

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This is a form recently invented by Gary Kent Spain, aka venicebard on allpoetry.
To Quote Gary:
 Some paired what, you say?  This is a form I invented recently, not just to invent a form but because I liked the sound of it.
‘Triquin’ is a reversal of ‘quatrain’ (I dropped the a because both ‘triquain’ and ‘troisquain’ sounded funny to me) and is defined as a three-line stanza consisting of:
L1 – trochee-iamb-iamb-iamb
(DUM de de DUM de DUM de DUM);
L2 – iamb-iamb-iamb-iamb
(de DUM de DUM de DUM de DUM)
L3 – (indented) iamb-iamb 
(de DUM de DUM);
and it must contain alliteration between two consecutive stressed words in one of its lines,
and the final consonant sound of L2 must match that of L3(last two consonants,
if the last syllables of both end in two or more consonant sounds).
‘Paired Triquins’ specifically refers to two of these forming one six-line stanza,
with another variant allowed (only if one wishes) for the new L5, namely:
pyrrhic-spondee-iamb-iamb   (de de DUM DUM de DUM de DUM)
…and the additional requirement of having the 1st and 3rd DUMs of L2 rime the third DUM of L1,
and the 1st and 3rd DUMs of L5 rime the 2nd and 4th, respectively, of L4.
Syllabic schematic:
XxxXxAxX
xAxXxAxT
     xXxT [‘T’= terminal consonant]
XxxBxXxC
xBxXxCxT [or xxBXxCxT]
       xXxT

Example Poem

Mentor   (Paired Triquin Pair)
Scoundrels will scheme and squirm to make
you learn what you have spurned in past
    these tasks attest.
Welsh as this seems, it to’s been true
in dreams,  these I eschew sometimes,
     but not new forms.
Granted not gracing our fair bard
this hour would only sour myself.
    There’d be no riff.
Colleges fail,  but mentors don’t;
they’re hale and really won’t give up.
    They just can’t stop.
© Lawrencealot – June 20, 2013

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Amanda's Pinch poetry form

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 Created by  Amanda J. Norton, Oct. 18, 2013 on Allpoety
This is a syllabic form with syllable count 12/12/10/8/8/10/12/12
with Rhyme Scheme abcDDcba, (with line 5 a refrain of line 4)
Alliteration is required in every line.
It looks well centered.
Its structure giving the impression of being gently pinched together,
then springing back in a mirror image.
It may be doubled.
Sample Poem
Unhooked Hook-up     (Amanda’s Pinch)
Two sailors seeking girls inclined to kiss and pet;
I kissed my choice until my lips looked botox filled.
My girl had double D’s that suited well
until I bumbled with the bra!
Until I bumbled with the bra
my every effort seemed to work out swell.
She was prob’ly put off that I was so unskilled.
That was an undone date that I just can’t forget.
© Lawrencealot – October 24,2013
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Cyrch Gymeriad

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Earliest strata of British Celtic poetry #1: cyrch gymeriad (wreathing).
Information provided by Gary Kent Spain.
In Welsh, cymeriad (‘memory’) refers to repetition of the same word or syllable, often at the start of successive lines.  Cyrch gymeriad means what we call ‘wreathing’, that is, to repeat the word or syllable ending one line (or line segment) at or near the start of the next (see below).  It can involve meaning as well, that is, synonyms.
Your prompt is to assemble short (roughly two-stress) line segments of 3-6 syllables (mostly 3-4 if possible) into at least two longer lines (printed as stanzas) that rime on the last syllable (stressed or not), and to link each line segment with its neighbors by one (or more) of the following techniques:
1.  Cymeriad (beginning with the same word or syllable, or a homophone or synonym)
2.  Cyrch gymeriad (word or syllable repetition linking end of one with start of next)
3.  Alliteration, or consonance (repetition of two or more sounds of a word, can both be consonant sounds or one can be a vowel sound)
4.  Rimed syllable, which even should it occur at the ends of two successive line segments still constitutes ‘internal’ rime, since more than one make up the complete ‘line’ (i.e. stanza)
…again, the cymeriad may involve homophones (different words that sound the same) or synonyms, in addition to actual repetition.
Schematic, where each letter represents a syllable, x = unlinked, lower case (abc etc.) rimed, upper case (ABC etc.) repeated (cymeriad)—spaces separate words, bold and italics (alternating) indicate alliteration, and underlinedindicates a proper name.
x  A-B / B  A-c
xxx  C / C  DD
DD  EE / EE  xf
G-GG  f / G-GG  H
H  xx / f   x  xH
x  x-xx / x-x-x-h
x  xxi / x x i / x–x  h
Example Poem
Abalone abound
bound below to rocks;
rocked not by salty waves
but safety waived by men.
Men-selfish divers
“shell-fish dinners” served as
dining divers’ can.
Bountiful before man
manufactured gear
that fractured, broke the ban
banning air- breathing man.
Man equipped to submerge
then eclipsed by base urge-
Urgent need for meals
of otters, and seals.
Tasting abalone,
Shellfish about alone
in taste, attests to why-
Why we’ve failed fishing ban.
© Lawrencealot – July 13, 2013
I have provided a Visual Template below that shows my attempt at various linkages.
Unfortunately, I could not make this schematic fit the example poem provide, and pretty much believe it is UNREALISITIC to assume a template can be constructed since almost everything is optional, from line-length to type of linkage.

Alliterisen poetry form

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The Alliterisen (Complex and Rhyming), a form created by Udit Bhatia, is a simple seven-lined poem with a specific syllable pattern and two alliterations per line.  For example: Glorious Graves, and wonderful waves. Alliteration is the succession of similar consonant sounds. They are not recognized by spelling, but rather by sounds.

 The syllable structure for the Complex Alliterisen is as follows:

 1st line- x syllables
2nd line- x+2 syllables
3rd line- x-1 syllables
4th line- (x+2)-1 syllables
5th line- x-2 syllables
6th line- (x+2)-2 syllables
7th line- x syllables

 which allows for infinite syllable sequences.

 Pasted from <http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/alliterisen.html>

 

Example Poem 

 The Knight of the Shopping Queen (  Complex Alliterisen with monorhyme) 

 Momma mumbles and grandpa grumbles but off they go.
She’s got stores selected and he’s got gumption and lots of dough.
Solicitous salesmen appear, all with grand goods to show
needles, brass bobbins, templates and many fine fabrics to sew
Gramps grabs her next favored choice;  takes it in tow.
Store after store momma’s  proven plaza pro
And Gramps just grins and waits until when momma says whoa.

© Lawrencealot – Feb 3, 2012

 

ALLITERISEN – Rhyming

–Must have only 7 syllables in each line (isosyllabic 7)
–Must use aabbccd rhyme scheme.
–Must have only 7  lines in the stanza.
–Must have one alliteration per line.

–Must be only one stanza (7 lines) although you could create one with two stanzas and call it a Double Rhyming Alliterisen-which means a three stanza one would be called a Triple Rhyming Alliterisen, and so on.

 

Example Poem 

 

Facing Off    (Rhyming Alliterisen) 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 


My clock was clearly mocking

with its tick-ing and tock-ing.
“Get to work, write right away.
I track time through-out the day.
I’m not mocking you, fine friend,
just prodding your plodding pen.”
His song’s sure despite his face.

© Lawrencealot – April 13, 2013

Visual Template
 
 

Byr a Thoddaid

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Byr a Thoddaid (beer ah TOE-thy’d), one of the 24 traditional Welsh

stanza forms, consists of four lines of syllable count 10/6/8/8

(or 8/8/10/6), rimed on last syllable except for the 10-syllable line,

 which has the main rime on the 7th, 8th, or 9th syllable with the

remainder set off by dash and either rimed within the 6-syllable

line or with its sequence of consonant-sounds repeated at the

start of the 6-syllable line, as above.

 

This poem has the Cynghanedd (consonance, harmony of sound)

required of Welsh bards, as detailed here:

 

http://allpoetry.com/column/7546199-Welsh_Poetry_-_Part_I_Cynghanedd_-by-Welshbard

 

 

Specifically, all but the last line of the first stanza

and the penultimate line of the second have Cynghanedd lusg

(trailing consonance), in which the accented penultimate syllable

 of the end-word is rimed earlier in the line

(the part of each 10-syllable line after the dash being excluded);

S1L4 and S2L3, then, both have Cynghanedd groes (cross-consonance),

 in which the second part of the line repeats the sequence of

consonant sounds in the first (end of last syllable of either

sequence can be ignored, as can n, while w and y the Welsh treat as vowels).

 

 

This form makes use of the gair cyrch in which the main rhyme appears somewhere near the end of a longer line and the end word is a secondary rhyme. The secondary rhyme is then echoed by alliteration or assonance in the first half of the next line.

  • stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains made up of 2 couplets,

  • syllabic, either L1-L2 8 syllables, L3 10 syllables L4 6 syllables, or the couplets are reversed L1 10 syllables, L2 6 syllables, L3-L4 8 syllables.

  • rhymed, either aaba with the main rhyme A occurring somewhere near the end of L3 and the secondary rhyme b echoed by alliteration or assonance in the first half of L4 or the couplets are reversed baaa.

 

 Potential
I know that my life’s potent– gauged not small–
gives notice of quotient
believed not achieved to extent
that make it thus, this man’s intent .
Say I, one day still invent– mankind’s balm–
Might call on all unspent
forces of mine formerly misspent
then would I feel good and content?

©  Lawrencealot – June 29,2012

Authors’s Notes

This poem has the Cynghanedd (consonance, harmony of sound)

required of Welsh bards, as detailed here:

Specifically, all but the last line of the first stanza
and the penultimate line of the second have Cynghanedd lusg
(trailing consonance), in which the accented penultimate syllable
 of the end-word is rimed earlier in the line
(the part of each 10-syllable line after the dash being excluded);
S1L4 and S2L3, then, both have Cynghanedd groes (cross-consonance),
 in which the second part of the line repeats the sequence of
consonant sounds in the first (end of last syllable of either
sequence can be ignored, as can n, while w and y the Welsh treat as vowels).
Please note the correction suggested in the comments below and navigate there
for a fuller treatment of this form.

This correction by Gary Kent Spain, aka, Venicebard on Allpoetry.

You might want to alter the Cynghanedd part of your AN here (lifted from one of my poems, which is okay except it is inaccurate with respect to your poem) to reflect the slightly looser form of Cynghanedd Groes (and echoing of the gair cyrch) you have aimed for in this poem.  The following link gives for C. Groes the stipulation that all that is necessary is repetition of the initial consonants of words, which is close to what you’ve tried to do here:

 

Related Welch form at HERE.

 

Visual Template of sorts
Byr a Thoddaid