Ae Freislighe
An Ae Freislighe is an Irish syllabic stanza form. Each stanza has four lines (quatrains), and each line has four unmetered syllables. Any number of stanzas is permissible.
One or more syllables need to match to make a rhyme. The dunadh — the final syllable, word(s), or line of the entire poem (not each stanza) — must contain the same syllable, word(s), or line as the beginning of the poem.
Diagrammed using one letter per syllable, it looks like this:
a x x x (b b b)
x x x x x (c c)
x x x x (b b b)
x x x x x (c c) (with a worked in here somewhere too, if and only if this is the last line of the entire poem)
Source
The good poets at https://yeahwrite.me/writing-help-ae-freislighe/
Examples
Here’s an example that’s also Tolkien-inspired. I’ll put the rhymes in a different text style, with the triples in bold and the doubles in italic. And I’ll underline the dunadh.
The Barrow Downs lie in mist,
The wreathing wisps grasp the stones,
Call me now a pessimist
But this cold reminds of bones.
Long ago they fell beneath,
Dark the shades that crept within,
Heavy gold they shall bequeath,
Entrapping weight to stiffen.
Why did we stop, unthinking?
Now my plaintive cry resounds,
Answered only in clinking,
Far beneath the Barrow Downs.
You can see that many of the triple rhymes are near-rhymes; that’s fine, as long as you’re getting the right sounds in the right places. You can also see that the dunadh only shows up once, in three quatrains.
You can also see that the lines are completely unmetered. This will help you – don’t try to pick a meter and make it harder than it needs to be. In fact, you can make it easier by going to a source like rhymezone and picking out some three-syllable words that you like the sound of and which rhyme. Starting with words that evoke an emotion or image for yourself can be as good as a prompt. (poets who took Nate’s class, you know what I’m talking about!)
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