10 Irish Poetic Forms
Here are 10 Irish poetic forms and how to write them. From the ae freislighe to the snam suad and several poem types in between.
Here are 10 Irish poetic forms and how to write them. From the ae freislighe to the snam suad and several poem types in between.
I've been covering poetic forms on this blog for more than a decade now. Long enough to make lists of poetic forms, like the 10 Irish poetic forms I've collected below. There are two things I especially enjoy about Irish forms: 1. The snappy names (I mean, cro cumaisc etir casbairdni ocus lethrannaigecht is the type of name you don't see every day); and 2. The rhyme schemes that are challenging to write but fun to read.
Click on each link below to learn how to write them.
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10 Irish Poetic Forms
- Ae freislighe. Quatrain with multi-syllabic end rhymes.
- Breccbairdne. 23-syllable stanzas with rhymes and consonance.
- Casbairdne. Cross rhymes, consonance, and more.
- Cro cumaisc etir casbairdni ocus lethrannaigecht. A quatrain form with alternating lines of five and seven syllables.
- Dechnad cummaisc. Alternating lines of eight and four syllables.
- Dechnad mor. Alliteration, internal rhymes, end rhymes, and more.
- Deibide baise fri toin. Quatrains with syllable counts of 3/7/7/1.
- Droigneach. Alliteration, flexible syllable counts, multi-syllabic rhymes, and more.
- Seadna. Alternating lines of eight and seven syllables.
- Snam suad. Tight three-syllable lines in eight-line stanzas.
Check these forms out, try them for fun, and let me know which is your favorite in the comments below. Or let me know of Irish forms I still have yet to cover (like the rinnard).
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.
