trobaire.org

a collection of literature from poets, bards, songwriters, and skalds in the SCA

Ode to a Patriarch

dunstan's picture
dunstan
Poem (Canso): 

Returning to my home
To rest from my roaming
Sun sinking steadily
I seek only solace.
Something awaits within;    
Wondering and watching
Death or worse awaits me     
Where demon dares to dwell.

Fearsome fiend before me    
Flailing fists of fury
The beast I must battle
Braying like a banshee
Scowling; squirming; screaming    
Snot and spit is streaming
I brace now for battle    
With rattle and bottle.

Documentation / Explanation (Razo): 

SYLLABIC STRESSES:

   /             /		
Returning to my home
    /            /
To rest from my roaming
  /  /
Sun sinking steadily
   /         /
I seek only solace.
            /     /
Something awaits within;
  /            /
Wondering and watching
  /       /
Death or worse awaits me
       /              /
Where demon dares to dwell.
   /       /
Fearsome fiend before me
  /       /
Flailing fists of fury
      /           /
The beast I must battle
  /             /
Braying like a banshee
  /                    /
Scowling; squirming; screaming
  /       /
Snot and spit is streaming
    /            /
I brace now for battle
       /         /
With rattle and bottle.

 

This poem is done in the skaldic style of Fornyrdislag, a style first described in the ninth and tenth centuries and used in the Eddas, Each of the lines in this particular poem consists of two stressed and four unstressed syllables (which is not typical of all of this style of poetry, just some) and relies heavily on alliteration rather than rhyming (which is typical in almost all this style of poetry). Stressed syllables are marked with a slash mark above them.