THE ROWAN CANTICLES - Canticle I - Introduction
A Tale Told in the Ancient Manner
The Rowan Canticles is an epic poem written in doggerel tetrameter. In other words, although each line contains eight syllables and rhymes with other lines nearby, like Shakespeare, I’ve used enjambment (one line spilling over into the next) here and there, especially in dialog sections. Mostly, though, I’ve striven for iambic tetrameter, which makes for a nice rhythm. You’ll notice that couplets, quatrains and other rhyme schemes refresh with each long Canticle. The old school language of The Rowan Canticles can be dense, but hey, it’s fun and it fits the fantasy.
Each week I will post a fresh Canto here at Substack, adding to the story. You’ll find ninety-nine Cantos in all contained in the three Canticles. The work is 13,000 lines long, about the length of Homer’s The Odyssey.
I hope you enjoy it!
Odds Bodkin
Don’t forget to download the companion Glossary below for definitions of archaic words to smooth your read!
CANTICLE I
HOW THE STORY SINGS
Some say the spirit lives alone
Within its cage of flesh and bone,
And that one never truly hears
Another's song though sung for years.
Perhaps those sad empiricists
Should hearken to the lyricists,
Who, ‘gainst the odds, to hope still cling,
Whilst in imprisoned souls they sing.
Here then, a tale, not told, but sung,
Its faux anachronistic tongue
Silvered on purpose for the rhyme,
Its syntax bent. Now, how much time
It takes to lure you down these trails
The ancients walked, before the tails
Of verse grew rhymeless with ennui
And self-absorbed modernity,
Well, who can say? A game to play,
This poem is. A longish lay
Of couplets, quatrains, whorls and more,
––Anachronisms, well, galore––
As well as free verse here and there,
Which to itself one must compare
To find the far-flung symphony
Splashed ‘cross its blank cacophony.
Continue to Canto I →
Wherein the story’s hero makes a deadly, drunken mistake that changes his life forever.
Thanks. I'll visit Crann na beatha and see what you're up to. Enjoy the poem. Odds
Sam, I hope you enjoy the epic as it unfolds. Thanks for your comment about the Invocation of the Muse. A most astute observation and dead on. Yes, that is what the Introduction was about. You're the first to have said that. I like that. What can I say? It's an ancient craft. Thanks. Best, Odds