A Deibhidhe

I’ve written up the rules of the deibhidhe form. It’s not an easy one to write in; the first couple of lines are easy, but the constraints increase as you go. For the first line, you just need seven syllables and some alliteration. By the time you get to line 4, it needs to rhyme with line 2, have two internal rhymes with line 3, and the last word must alliterate with the previous stressed word.

I think this verse meets all the requirements:

Sing songs of the sea, soldier;
Tell tales of travel abroad.
Count coins, show scars and marvel
At those folk who simply stayed.

It takes a lot more time to explain the working than the verse itself, but here goes: in line 1, “sing”, “songs”, “sea” and “soldier” all alliterate, although I don’t get any extra points for more than one. Style counts, though. The ending “r” puts it in group 4.

In line 2, “tell”, “tales” and “travel” all work the same way. A terminal d lands in group 1.

In line 3, “count” and “coins” alliterate, and “show” and “scars” sort-of do. The terminal l falls into group 4, same as line 2.

In line 4, for the internal rhymes, “folk” rhymes with “count” from line 3 (group 2), and “show” with “who” (group 4, although it’s weak). The final words alliterate; “simply stayed” and the terminal d obviously works with line 2.

And it has that undertone of faint sarcasm which seems to be an essential of Irish poetry in any era.

The next thing is to write poetry in the form that actually expresses something I want to say, rather than merely being technically correct.