Note 27 — Chapter XXXVIII

Of Little Rannaigheacht I gave an example a few pages back in the poem "Fooboon." Séadna [Shayna] was another great favourite, built on the model of the following verse, with or without alliteration—

"Teig of herds the Gallant Giver, Right receiver of our love, Teig thy Name shall KNow no ending, Branch un-Bending, Erin's glove."

This verse runs rhythmically, but that it does so is only an accident. The Irish could always have got their Séadna verses, at least, of eight and seven syllables, to run smoothly if they had wished, but they did not. Here is a more Irish-like stanza in the same metre—

"Of / lowliness / came a / daughter, And / he who / brought her / was / God, Noble / her / son and / stately, Ennobling / greatly / this / sod."

Great Séadna is the same metre as this, except that every verse ends with a word of three syllables. In Middle Séadna the first and third lines end in trisyllables, the second and fourth in dissyllables. Ae-fri-Slighe is like Middle Séadna, except that instead of the first and third lines being octosyllabic, they all have seven syllables, as—

"Ye who bring to slavery Men of mind and reading, God bring down your bravery, Leave you vexed and bleeding."

Little Deachna is a pretty metre with five syllables to each line, as—

"God gives me three things, Them he brings all three When the soul is born Like a corn in me."

Great Deachna contained eight and six syllables, each line ending in dissyllables—

"I believe this wafer holy, Which is safer surely, Flesh, blood, Godhead strangely mingled, In bread bodied purely."

The above metres are a few of the most favourite.