And there was Brown, upside down
Lappin’ up the whiskey on the floor
Booze Booze the firemen cried
as they came knockin’ at the door
Don’t let them in till it’s all mopped up
Somebody shouted “McIntyre”
And we all got blue blind
paralytic drunk
When the Old Dun Cow caught fire
Irish verse, yes. Irish drinking song, no.
Deibhidhe (jay-vée) and its variations are ancient Irish Verse Forms that carry a deibhidhe or light rhyme, meaning that each rhymed couplet rhymes a stressed end syllable with an unstressed end syllable. As with most ancient Irish forms, the Deibhidhes are written with cywddydd (harmony of sound) and dunadh (ending the poem with the same word, phrase or line with which the poem began).
A Deibhidhe is:
- written in any number of quatrains, each line has 7 syllables;
- composed with light rhyming in couplets, rhyming a stressed end syllable with an unstressed end syllable;
- alliterated, often alliteration appears between two words in each line;
- written with the final word of L4 alliterating with the preceding stressed word;
- composed to include at least two cross-rhymes between L3 and L4. Rhyme scheme aabb ccdd etc.
————-<>————-
Vicountess Krysta MacIntyre
fallen in Spring Crown Tourney, A.S. XLI
(Irish deibhidhe)
Herald called her to take arms
This Lady of Lindesfarne
But she fell to the first knight
Well met in this stark sunlight.
Fresh wounds from the lion’s best
Helped the bear in his conquest
A few sure blows and she fell
Silence grows, save now deathe knell.
Brave and bold for all to see
Death denied her victory
Tales of valor will be told
And honor hailed by Herald.
–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.