Treochair: Poetic Forms
Learn how to write a treochair, an Irish tercet form with alliteration, including guidelines for the form and an example poem.
Last week, we looked at a Welsh form (awdl gywydd). This week, let's try out the treochair!
Treochair Poems
The treochair is an Irish form. While there are quite a few mentions online, the only book that appears to mention it is Robin Skelton's The Shapes of Singing. Here are the basic rules:
- Variable number of tercets (or three-line stanzas)
- Three syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and seven in the third
- The first line rhymes with the third
- Treochairs employ a lot of alliteration
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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 Treochair:
tell teacher, by Robert Lee Brewer
tell teacher
to traipse in the pale moonlight
with the purposeful preacher
while playing
poker peacefully teaching
and passionately praying
for lovely
interludes in the little
log house silencing the sea
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.
