An alliterative poem for dverse.
Death in winter
White is the winter, its winding-sheet pale
As the face of the famished, stark-frozen in death.
And the carrion crow, with its coarse raucous voice
Calls down from the darkness, storm-dogged and ill-omened,
This world is for warriors, not the weak and despairing,
But your spears and your swords, though you swear by their keenness,
Are no help when Hel summons, and you hear Garmr snarl.
The Four Swans 
This reminds me why I like living in a sunny state!
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I have been going from one site to the next trying to figure out this alliterative verse and it is so hard to understand! I know what alliteration is but there are so many terms and with the lifts and the dips…..😵💫
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The winding-sheet sets the atmosphere. No color here. (K)
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Death leaches the colour anyway.
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You have mastered the form with your word-hoard, Jane. Especially loved this line: “As the face of the famished, stark-frozen in death.”
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Thanks, Dora. It wasn’t easy to keep the stressed words down to four!
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Breath-taking, Jane, especially those opening lines, which set the scene perfectly. I also love the sounds in ‘carrion crow, with its coarse raucous voice’, and I swear I heard ‘Garmr snarl’.
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Thanks Kim. I had a few false starts with this prompt. It was hard to keep only four stressed words to the line and have them alliterative. The unstressed words kept wanting to be stressed too 🙂
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They didn’t look too stressed! I enjoyed them.
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Incredibly descriptive, Jane, with wonderful alliteration. The carrion crow lines for me….wonderful. You have indeed captured the form!
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Thank you, Lillian xx
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This world is for warriors–a period-appropriate sentiment.
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Great images in your poem, Jane. When the call comes we can’t refuse!
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Thanks Dwight! No, you’re right there 🙂
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You are welcome. :>)
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You captured the starkness of winter and inevitability of death. You made writing the form seem effortless. 🙂
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The hyphenation works well here. You’ve mesmerized me with this scenario. The “carrion crow, with its coarse raucous voice” gives it such menace!
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You really used the form at its best… when sitting and reading it alound I especially loved the coarse voice of the carrion crows. Yes this is exactly what I wanted to see.
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As you said, it’s a storytelling form, so you have to read it aloud. The only way to hear where the stress falls naturally.
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What a beautiful piece of writing, Jane! Getting the stresses right is not easy, especially for us for whom English is a second language. Your verse is such a pleasure to read aloud. ❤️
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