This was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at a Scottish stanza!
Also known as the Burns stanza, the Standard Habbie, or the Six Line Stave, the Scottish stanza is a tail rhyme stanza, meaning that the last line of the stanza is short and rhymes with another short line within the stanza. The Burns stanza was made popular by the 18th century Scot poet, Robert Burns, but was previously used by another Scot, Habbie Simpson in the early 1600s. The form could also be categorized as a variation of the 16th century Occitan form Rime Couée.
The Scottish stanza is:
- stanzaic, written in any number of sixains;
- metered, the standard meter of Scottish poetry is tetrameter. This stanza is most often written with L1, L2, L3, L5 in iambic tetrameter and L4 and L6 in iambic dimeter. Some sources indicated the form to be syllabic, with the long lines being between 8 and 9 syllables and the short lines between 4 and 5 syllables;
- rhymed, rhyme scheme aaabab cccdcd etc.
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Lord Andrew Baird
fallen in Fall Crown Tourney, A.S. XLI
(Scottish stanza)
From the lowland warriors came,
Their dreams of victory the same,
That tourney’s end would carry fame
For combat’s deed.
And Herald’s voice would call their name
As al-Caid.
Lord Andrew took the field in stride,
Fa’izah stood and watched with pride,
But victory would be on the side
Of his first foe.
Lament this victory denied
From eagle’s blow.
Again he rose to face the fight,
To honor Her was his delight,
But fate bestowed the second knight
With victory sweet.
Struck down by the lion’s might
His was defeat.
–THL Beathog nic Dhonnchaidh
. . . is a 14th century bard who can often be seen traveling far from her home in the Highlands with her lord husband and muse. If a good tale crosses her path, she will sing a song about it, pull out its hair and spin it, or throw it in a pot and cook it up.