All Hallows’ Eve
Dark shadows creep from far away
Beware of the falling night
Put on your armor, child, prepare
To fight, persevere in plight
This short poem is my attempt at seadna. It seemed fitting to try an Irish poetic form on Halloween that has its roots in Celtic culture.
Here are the (somewhat complicated) guidelines for writing a seadna:
- Quatrain (or four-line) stanzas
- Eight syllables in lines one and three; seven syllables in lines two and four
- Lines one and three end with a 2-syllable word; lines two and four end with a one-syllable word
- Lines two and four end rhyme with each other
- The final word of the first line alliterates with the first stressed word of the second line
- The third line rhymes with the stressed word preceding the last word of the stanza…
- …and all three of those words alliterate with each other
Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay
sasha a. palmer 