Casbairdne

Casbairdne is an Irish quatrain (or 4-line stanza) form that is packed full of poetic intrigue.

Here are the basic guidelines for this poetic form:

• 4 lines per stanza
• 7 syllables per line (with a trisyllabic ending—which may mean a word or phrase)
• lines 2 and 4 end rhyme
• every couplet within each quatrain features at least 2 internal cross-rhymes
• all lines share the same end consonant sounds
• final syllable of line 4 alliterates with stressed syllable preceding it
• poem (not the stanza) ends with the same syllable (or word) it begins with

Sample poem

we walked alone in the night
fighting for our simple fate
unwilling to take a seat
or to cower as we wait

and we wander through the pain
say we don't know what we mean
and believe love is divine
to shine light on sight unseen

• The underlined words are trisyllabic endings.
• Italicised words are internal cross-rhymes.
• Words in bold are end rhymes.
• Coloured letters share the same end consonant sounds.
• ‘We’ in the first line and ‘see’ (unseen) in the last line share the same syllable (guideline 7)

For this event, write at 3-stanza casbairdne on any topic of your choosing.

Click here for submission guidelines and rules.

Submission deadline: July 20, 2026

Results: July 27, 2026

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