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Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Other
Supposedly pronounced da-GNAW-moor, this is a complex Irish
syllabic form. Here are the rules:
- The form is a stanzaic quatrain form.
- Lines one and three have eight syllables.
- Lines two and four have six syllables.
- The lines have di-syllabic endings, meaning the last two syllables are both involved in the consonation.
- The stanza consonates in an alternating (abab) pattern.
- There are at least two cross-rhymes in each couplet.
- The final word of line three rhymes with a word in the interior of line four.
- The internal rhyme in the first couplet can consonate instead of true rhyme.
- In the second couplet, rhymes are exact.
- Two words alliterate in each line.
- In line four, the final word alliterates with the previous stressed word.
- The poem (not the stanza) should end as it began, with a word, phrase or line the same. (Dunadh)
Obviously, with so few syllables packing so many forms of binding, it will probably be that each syllable will participate in multiple ways. One syllable
might be alliterative internally, rhyming within the couplet, and consonating with the alternate line. This is not a form for beginners, and works much better
in other languages, such as Gaelic. To the ancient Celts, poetry was magic. Their forms are very complex to keep the magic among the priestly (Druidic)
classes. One of their poets often had the equivalent in study to a doctoral degree in our society.