Breccbairdne: Poetic Forms
Poetic Form Fridays are made to share various poetic forms. This week, we look at the breccbairdne, an Irish poetic form.
Poetic Form Fridays are made to share various poetic forms. This week, we look at the breccbairdne, an Irish poetic form.
Breccbairdne Poems
The breccbairdne is an Irish quatrain form. Here are the basic guidelines:
- Quatrain (or four-line stanza) form
- Five syllables in the first line; six syllables in the other three lines
- Each line ends with a two-syllable word
- Lines two and four rhyme
- All end words consonate
Quick note: Consonance is the act of repeating consonant sounds; my example below consonates middle and end sounds, but consonance could also focus on the opening consonant sounds.
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Here’s my attempt at a breccbairdne:
tattle, by Robert Lee Brewer
Go, tell your father
that you saw your mother
being quite a bother
to your older brother
down by the river
where there is a sliver
of an uncooked liver
that prompted a shiver
before some shaking
without any faking
of news you were breaking
about their scene making.
(Note on my example: I rhymed a lot more frequently than is required by this form. Remember that you only "need" to rhyme the second and fourth line of each stanza.)
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
