Forgotten Ground Regained

Keening of the Banshee

(an Irish Séadna)
Many mounds fleck Isle of Erin,Over great green country spread.Darkly tower against the eveningTumuli of kings long dead.
And in common country graveyards,Gone from Earth’s griefs, mortal woes,Lie the lowly who’ve been taken.As with kings—who’ll waken those?
All alive whose lines are native,Know the baleful Banshee’s keenMay moan with their death nearing.Hag they’re fearing may be seen
Combing out her blood-red tresses,Twisted crone, dread, hollow eye.Wails of woe a weird wind carries.Her screams harry one to die.
Sometimes seen ‘neath grove’s thick shadow,Shrouded, hooded, cloaked in grey,Or near a corpse-mound past nightfall,Shrieking out her call—most fey.
E'en across the night sky flying,Frightening, shrill, across the moon,Some poor soul will low be lying,Sad portent—one dying soon.
Hear the howling of the Banshee.Beware! Death is drawing near!The Crone of the Mound is calling,And her keening all should fear.
It is believed by many that only those of pure Irish stock hear the Banshee’s call. Those of lines from the Saxon or Norman invaders cannot hear it. One must be a descendent of true Milesian/Goidelic stock. Most who have traditions of Banshee visitations are among families with the traditional O’ of Mc/Mac surname prefixes.
Author’s Note
This poem is written roughly according to the rules for the Old Irish Seadna form
Each stanza is a quatrain consisting of alternating 8 and 7 syllable lines. Lines 1 and 3 end with a 2-syllable word; lines 2 and 4 end with a 1-syllable word.
Alliteration
  • At least two words alliterate or show consonance in every line (NOTE: I often drop this requirement for the 4th line of each stanza, where it is difficult to maintain along with the other requirements for the stanza form.)
  • The rhyme word at the end of line 1 must alliterate/consonate with the first stressed word of line 2 (graveyards/griefs, native/know, tresses/twisted, shadow/shrouded, flying/frightening, Banshee/beware)
  • The same alliteration must be carried forward to the next-to-last stressed word before the end of the stanza [NOTE: I have not kept with this last restriction]
Rhyme
  • The rhyme scheme is ABCB (that is, lines 2 and 4 must rhyme: spread/dead, woes/those, keen/seen, eye/die, grey/fey, flying/lying, near/fear)
  • The last word in line 3 must rhyme with next-to-last stressed word in line 4 (taken/waken, nearing/fearing, carries/harry, nightfall/call, lying/ding, calling/all.
ALSO: While I have adhered mostly to “true” alliteration in this poem, the Irish forms allow certain closely related consonants to be treated as equivalent for the purpose of alliteration]
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