Manajar Poetry



Manajar poetry is a certain form of verse and meter that is the mainstay and most popular form of Dyari poetry. It incorporates alliteration and rhyme and is often used in heroic and folktales.

Generally, each line is broken up into two halves. The first half consists of two main alliterating words, while the second half begins with another alliterating main word and ends with a word that rhymes with that of another line. Occasionally there is additional alliteration within the poem as well, but that is not part of the main scheme.

The rhyme scheme for each stanza is A, B, A, B, C, C. The following excerpt is an example of a manajar stanza.

Example

 * Determined yet dour, did he enter, 


 * Fiend’s foul lair, fetid and rank, 


 * No noise did he make, nor voice did he venture, 


 * Black beast lay sleeping, but yet not awake, 


 * Death dealing dagger, did plunge from its sheathe, 


 * Into beast’s beating heart, blood pooled beneath