Rinnard: Poetic Forms
Poetic Form Fridays are made to share various poetic forms. This week, we look at the rinnard, which is an Irish quatrain form.
The rinnard is an Irish poetic form. It has the following guidelines:
- Quatrain (or four-line) poem (or stanzas).
- Six-syllable lines.
- Two-syllable rhymes at the end of each line.
- Rhyme scheme for each quatrain: abcb.
- The "a" and "c" words consonate with the "b" words.
- Usually an aicill rhyme between lines three and four.
Note on aicill rhyme: An aicill rhyme in this poem means that the final syllable of line three rhymes somewhere in line four (usually the middle). While I tried in my example below, I came up just a tad short--unless we want to really slant the rhyme of "fever/heated" in the first stanza.
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Play with poetic forms!
Poetic forms are fun poetic games, and this digital guide collects more than 100 poetic forms, including more established poetic forms (like sestinas and sonnets) and newer invented forms (like golden shovels and fibs).
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Here’s my attempt at a rinnard:
Dover Men, by Robert Lee Brewer
When young men in Dover
start to get a shiver,
they may have a fever
from a heated liver.
Perhaps, they drink hardest
when they're being modest;
with their lips unharnessed,
at least they'll be honest.
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.
