Hello all, today it is time to revisit a form we tried more than 10 years ago. You can find the original prompt here, but let me try to summarise a little.
Classical English poetry has several origins but mostly there are two origins, a Germanic (or anglo-saxon) and a latin coming mostly from France and later Italy.
The Latin verse is the one we know the best today. We learn about feet (iambs, dactyls…) and rhymes and rhyme schemes and from that we have sonnets, rondeaus, villanelles etc. All very suitable for music and dance.
The Germanic tradition of poetry was much more suited for storytelling and here we do not count syllables, we care less about rhymes. Still we care about rhythm using stress syllables without counting the unstressed syllables between.
To put further stress to the stressed syllables we use alliteration.
So this is the way I have been taught (thank you Tony)
The alliterative verse has four stressed syllables per line.
The three first syllables alliterate, while the fourth does not.
There is a caesura (pause) between the first two stressed syllables and the last two.
If you want to, you may put a line break or some punctuation to make the caesura clear.
I have written a few alliterative verses lately you may use as an example, as this one for example.
Before Thunder
Thor before the bolt: a baby grown from the earth
from soil in sudden of light; his strength from rock
to the fostered the fury: forceful as God, as a man
and yet as a youngster; not yardlong, little and raw
a gem to be glossed; still gowned in a dress
he widened and grew to wear in swagger, his pride
but hammerless still, a sapling fed on the milk
from mother that were more of a man than her son
until forged out of fire his fist grasped the hammer
that Thor with a thud turned into thunder and rain..
I have tried to bold the stressed syllables and as you see we get a rhythm: of Boom-Boom-Boom-Crash, which for the reader and listener made it easier to remember.
So today I want you to try your poetic skills in writing alliterative verse according to the above.
When you have written your poem, link it up with Mr Linky below, comment below if you want and visit the other poets, leave a comment and don’t forget to read the poems aloud to discover the wonderful world of alliterative verse.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Tonight I offer you mead and ale. We have sourdough bread with home-made butter, and of course sausages and ham,
kim881 said:
Good evening, poets, and thank you Björn for hosting with a Scandi prompt. I was going to try a mythological poem, but then I though that it would be a popular topic, so I wrote an alliterative poem about spring. I promise, I’m almost all sprung out!
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
I love the thought of a spring poem, and I am sure it works perfectly with alliterations as well… I hope this will be a fun prompt to read…
Laura Bloomsbury said:
thank you for this prompt – alliteration is one of my favourite uses of word play but the added beat challenge was grist for my Muse’s mill – not sure I succeeded but enjoyed trying
Some mead sounds just right as weather here still wet and turning colder again
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Mead coming up, it has been aged in oak as well so I hope you appreciate the taste.
dorahak said:
Hello Björn and everyone. Wow, this form was challenging, and I’m not sure I got it right but it was fun trying! How about a mug of mead and a slice of bread with your homemade butter? Sounds delish!!
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
It is and it fits the prompt, I loved your writing, and if you read it loud you will see how you really put weight of those syllables…
dorahak said:
I think I’d rather the vellum-toting monk in the Library do it, but yes, I see what you mean.😊
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
We can pretend to be monks and robe ourselves and read them somewhere with a suitable echo
dorahak said:
Haha! That’s fine and good, but don’t forget the mead, please. 🍺😂
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Of course… mead it has to be.
paeansunplugged said:
Hi Björn and others. Very interesting form. I enjoyed alliteration but I don’t know if I have got the beat right.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
It can be a bit tricky… but I am sure you got it right.
paeansunplugged said:
I hope so. 🙂
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
I am very tired and will slip off to bed… Tomorrow will be a full day at a conference, really looking forward to that, but it may take a little while until I get back and comment… I like all I have seen so far.
Helen said:
Mead, sourdough and homemade butter ~~~ divine! I am posting I “ginned” together poem, but doubt I got it right. I would really appreciate a “tell me where I went wrong” comment!!!
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Coming back late to respond… I hope you managed to get some bread and mead for the prompt-
writingpresence said:
As the yellowhammer (bird, not Thor’s pal) is reputed to sing, “A little bit of bread and no cheese” (but butter will do me very nicely). And a tot of mead, indeed. Thank ye, frankly!
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Mead is like wine actually, and with bread it and butter it is the best of things
Stephen Buttigieg said:
Cannot see Mr Linky Hmmmm
Stephen Buttigieg said:
Aah. Found Mr. Linky 🙂 Feel free to comment. Never tried this type of alliteration before.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
I will get by, and you can also check the other poets to find examples.
Rob Kistner said:
Thank you for hosting Bjorn. I love alliteration and tend to use it frequently. This should be fun digging a little deeper in the direction you pointed us. I have an appointment today at the neurosciences building, so I’ll have to get started on this tomorrow. Should be fun.🙂✌🏼🫶🏼
Rob Kistner said:
Not sure if I got this right, but I found myself wandering with my dark side, so I went with it. This is where it took me. 👍🏼✌🏼
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Dark works well with this type of form… especially if you use the onomaotpoeia with the alliteration.
Xan said:
I first learned of this type of verse from the podcast The History of English, in an episode about “rhyme” in Chaucer’s time. The host read some Chaucer passages in the original Old English and you could really here the alliteration as rhyme. I’ve given it a go here; I’m fine on the alliteration, but I can’t make the meter work. May come back to it. Great prompt.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Exactly, it is another form of rhyme really. Maybe it shoul be seen as a kind of embedded rhyme.
lillian said:
A challenging prompt. I had fun with this one…..and think I handled it, almost. Will read in the morning. Thank you, Bjorn.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
It is fun, and now I will go around to read everyone else’s poem… I look forward to it.
kittysverses said:
Thank you for hosting, Bjorn. This was a challenging yet interesting prompt. Hope I got it right. 🙂
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
It takes a bit getting used to (just like rhyme)
pvcann said:
Hi everyone, thank you Bjorn, great prompt to work with and thank you for the supportive info and your wonderful example.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
I will soon get around reading now.
merrildsmith said:
Thank you for hosting with this challenging prompt, Björn. I use alliteration often, but not in this way. I’m not sure I got it right.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
I will soon read yours, but just like with rhyme, you usually know it is right when reading it aloud.
merrildsmith said:
🙂
rothpoetry said:
I am running late again with my poem. This has been a busy and tiring week. A challenging prompt, Bjorn. Thanks for hosting!
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
I am running even later… now I am finally ready to read all the installments.
rothpoetry said:
:>)
msjadeli said:
Hello Bjorn and All. I’m glad I waited until today to write to this as my brain was fried by late afternoon yesterday. A challenging prompt but a fun challenge like solving a puzzle. I really hope you have some Mead and sourdough bread with homemade butter left. Sounds like a perfect pairing.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
I have just put some new bread, butter and ice-cold mead for you to taste… and it is challenging, in the way rhymes and meter can be… we just have to get used to it.
msjadeli said:
Yummy, thanks and Cheers! I’d like to practice it more. It took me out of my rut.