Forgotten Ground Regained

House Martins

Master silt-masons mortar pond-quarried blocks of beak-stucco, building egg-villas
Note from the Editor:
“House Martins” imitates Haðarlag (‘Hǫðr’s metre’). This is a variant of málaháttr (a meter that requires five syllables per line, and three stresses). Each line follows a regular rhythm (/ x \ / x). Alliteration works according to the usual Old Norse pattern: two props in the odd-numbered lines alliterating with the head-stave (first stressed syllable) in the following even-numbered line. Once again, there is internal rhyme (skothending in odd-numbered lines and aðalhending in even ones).
Part of Forgotten Ground Regained: A Journal of Alliterative Verse, Issue 8, Fall, 2025: Norse and Icelandic Forms
Copyright © Colin Mackenzie, 2025
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