(; plural ) is a traditional Welsh short poem form, consisting of a stanza of either three or four lines. The metre involves the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme. Many lines contain a repeating pattern of consonants and accent known as .
An can be used as a poem in its own right, for example as an epitaph, or used in a series as part of a longer poem. Sometimes different types of are mixed in the same poem.E.g. The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse nos. 16, 38 and 68.
The three-line was common in early Welsh poetry, but about the 12th century it went out of fashion, to be replaced completely by four-line varieties.Conlan, T. Welsh Verse (rev. 1986), p. 307.
The most common type of is the four-line , which is usually referred to simply as an .
Early history
The is found in the work of the earliest attested Welsh poets (the ), where the main types are the three-line and .Rowland (1990), p. 305. It is the only set stanzaic metre found in the early Welsh poetic corpus, and explanations for its origins have tended to focus on stanzaic Latin poetry and hymns; however, it is as likely to be a development within the Brittonic poetic tradition.Rowland (1990), pp. 305–8. Whereas the metrical rules of later are clear (and are based on counting syllables), the precise metre of the early is debated and could have involved stress-counting.Rowland (1990), pp. 308–32. The earliest are found as marginalia written in a tenth-century hand in the Juvencus Manuscript.Rowland (2014), p. xxvi.
Many early seem to represent moments of characters' emotional reflection in stories now lost: , , . Others survey heroic tradition, for example the or Geraint son of Erbin, and other poems written using are lyric, religious meditations and laments such as the famous and .
In the 14th century the various metres used in Welsh poetry were classified into 24 different types; the classification is thought to be due to Einion Offeiriad and Dafydd Ddu o Hiraddug.J. Morris-Jones (1925), , p. 319. In Einion's grammar, the metres are divided into three groups: and . The first group contained eight types of : and . In the 15th century Dafydd ab Edmwnd revised the list, excluding the three-lined and , which had become obsolete. These three-line are sometimes referred to as ("englyns of the old poetry").Morris-Jones (1925), p. 316.
Three-line
literally means "the short-ended ", since in it a 16-syllable opening couplet is followed by a line of only 7 syllables.Morris-Jones (1925), p. 316, note 1. The first line has ten syllables, divided five + five.
In its usual form, the first couplet of the is a , with the main rhyme in line 1 coming on the 7th, 8th, or 9th syllable. The part of line 1 after the rhyme, which is known as the and is usually separated from it in writing by a dash, is linked to the first half of line 2 either by consonance or by rhyme.
The following is part of a longer poem called . In this poem a princess, Heledd, sings a lament for her brother, Cynddylan, a prince of the Kingdom of Powys, who died fighting the English in the 7th century A.D. Cynddylan's hall was located in Pengwern, a place believed to be in what is now Shropshire. The poem is dated to the 9th century A.D.
The following has only five syllables in the second line. The first and third lines have with two internal rhymes.
Another early form of the also had lines of 10, 6, and 7 syllables, but had rhyme between the middle and end of the first line instead of a . In this verse, in which and echo the consonants of :Quoted by Morris-Jones (1925), p. 65; cf. p. 316.
The "crooked short ". This is like , but orders the lines differently: seven syllables in the first, ten syllables (in two groups of five) in the second, and five to six syllables in the third:J. Morris-Jones (1925), , p. 316.
In some of this type, instead of , there is a triple rhyme as follows:
Morris-Jones calls a couplet with a triple rhyme like this a .
The " of the cupped hand"., s.v. ; the dictionary explains it as meaning expecting a tip or gift. After the first two lines of ten and six syllables, as in an , there is just one more line of two, three or four syllables, which follows the rhyme of the first two lines. This metre is rarely used. The following example comes from a 16th-century grammar book:John Dafydd Rhys (1592), ; quoted by J. Morris-Jones (1925), , p. 352.
The above example has in line 1, and linking lines 1 and 2.
According to John Morris-Jones, this metre is no more than a joke. It is not one of the ancient measures of Welsh poetry.J. Morris-Jones (1925), , pp. 352–3.
The "soldier's ". This consists of three seven-syllable lines. All three lines rhyme. The following is found in a 13th-century manuscript, but may be earlier:
There is usually a caesura after the third or fourth syllable, as shown above.
The can also sometimes be made using (half-rhyme) instead of rhyme.Morris-Jones (1925), p. 316.
The three-line of the poem are similar, but in a slightly different metre, in that the first line of each stanza has eight (sometimes nine) syllables, and the 2nd and 3rd usually have seven (but sometimes six or eight) syllables. For example (in modern spelling):
In this poem, as well as the irregular line-lengths, the caesura is also sometimes irregularly placed, as in the third line above.
Four-line
The "straight one-rhymed ", , is identical to except that it adds a fourth seven-syllable line at the end. Thus it consists of four lines of ten, six, seven and seven syllables, all with the same rhyme. The seventh, eighth or ninth syllable of the first line introduces the rhyme and this is repeated on the last syllable of the other three lines. The part of the first line after the rhyme is known as the , which can be one, two, or three syllables long. s.v. 1. This alliterates or rhymes with a word or words in the first part of the second line.
This is the most common kind of . The first two lines, which are in the form of a , are known as the ("shaft (of an arrow)"), while the third and fourth, which are identical to a couplet in the metre, are known as the ("wings (or feathers)")., s.v. .
This is an by Alan Llwyd, written in honour of the Welsh nationalist poet R. S. Thomas:
Each line is decorated with traditional , including linking the at the end of line one with the phrase at the beginning of line 2. (C) = , (Cy) = , (T) = . The in the third line is complex, since it combines two types.
The dash after the rhyme in line 1 does not necessarily represent a break in syntax, but is simply a metrical mark which is customarily used before a .
In the great majority of examples of , the is linked to a word in line 2 by consonantal rather than rhyme. For example, in his poem of ten dafyddapgwilym.net, poem 12. listing ten virtues of his patron Ifor ap Llewelyn, only two have rhyme, including the tenth:
(S) = , (C) = , (T) = . The following is by the 12th-century Welsh poet . It describes the mighty sound of the war-horn of Llewelyn the Great. In this early example there is no consonance or rhyme between the end of line 1 and the beginning of line 2:
The following is grace in the form of an in a poem by W. D. Williams.The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse, p. 536. Line 1 (from to ) has (T), line 3 (S), and line 4 (C). The () is linked to the beginning of line 2 () by (Cy):
The "crooked one-rhymed ". This is the reverse of the , in that the two seven-syllable lines come first, followed by the of 10 syllables and 6. The last syllables of the first, second and last lines and the seventh, eighth or ninth syllable of the third line all have the same rhyme. It is much less common than the . The following example is by Dewi Wyn o Eifion (19th century):Quoted in J. Morris-Jones (1925), , p. 323.
The poem is decorated with : (C) in lines 1, 3, and 4, and (S) in line 2. In addition to the in the last line, there is also in the words .
The "even ", more common in the Middle Ages than later. This consists of four seven-syllable lines. All four lines rhyme. One example (showing the half-rhyme of with ) is:
This anonymous example (found in a 13th-century manuscript but probably earlier) also has internal rhymes in each line.
The "seeking ". This form has four lines of seven syllables each. The final syllables of the first, second, and last line rhyme. The final syllable of the third line rhymes with the second, third or fourth syllable of the last line. In this example by Peryf ap Cedifor (12th century), the first line has alliteration (C D F) but without matching stress, and lines 2 and 3 have :
Caradog and the poet Peryf were sons of Cedifor Wyddel ("Cedifor the Irishman") of Gwynedd. Peryf's brother was one of those killed fighting for Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd at the battle of Pentraeth in Anglesey in 1170.
The has much in common with the South Welsh popular verse form the , with lines of 3, 3, 4, and 3 accents. One difference between them is that in the the 3rd line has eight syllables instead of seven.
What were taken to be two different types of by Einion Offeiriad in the 14th century ( and ) were considered to be one metre by Dafydd Nanmor in the 15th century, which he called (" of varying half-rhyme"). is a kind of rhyme or assonance in which the consonants remain the same, but the vowels change. However, not every vowel can rhyme with every other. For example, a long diphthong such as ae cannot rhyme with a simple vowel such as a or e.Morris-Jones (1925), p. 254.
The term , feminine , (literally "round ended") is used of simple vowels as opposed to long diphthongs. (Einion took the word to be feminine, hence the feminine adjective.) In an , there are four seven-syllable lines that half-rhyme with each other, each line using a different simple vowel.
The example below by Gruffudd ap Maredudd ap Dafydd (14th century) has in each line: (S) = , combining internal rhyme and alliteration, and (T) = , with alliteration only.
The four vowels used in the can also be long ones, but not a mixture of long and short. The following is by the poet Sefnyn (c. 1380), Elegy for :cy:Iorwerth ab y Cyriog. (S) = , (C) = :
This is identical to the except that the half rhymes must use the , , , and diphthongs, called ("sloping, languid"), which in can only rhyme with each other. The following example is attributed to Dafydd Ddu o Hiraddug (14th century).Quoted by J. Morris-Jones (1925), , p. 325.
This particular example has internal rhymes in each of its lines, with in line 1, in lines 2, and 4, and in line 3. There is also since each line begins with the same consonant. The adjective ("slanting, playful, soft, gentle, languid" etc.) in line 2 describes both the maiden's look and the long diphthongs of the rhymes.
The "chain half-rhyme ". In this version there are four lines of seven syllables. The first and third lines rhyme and the second and fourth also rhyme, the two rhymes being half-rhymes of each other. The following example is by Tudur Aled:Quoted by J. Morris-Jones (1925), , p. 326.
Each line in this example is also decorated with (C). There is also (echoed consonants) linking the beginning of lines 1 and 2, and again linking the beginning of lines 3 and 4. (See .)
This consists of a (10 syllables + 6), exactly as in the first two lines of an , followed by a longer with either 9 or 10 syllables in the last line.[https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/geraint.jones/rhydychen.org/gwasg.aredig/cynghanedd/geirfa/#toddaid_hir Appendix to the course .
The following example is by the 20th-century poet Gwilym R. Tilsley from his poem :
The main rhyme comes in the middle of lines 1 and 3, but at the end of lines 2 and 4. The first line has ; the third has , but with unmatching stress; the last has conventional .
This metre is not one of the 24 official bardic metres specified in Eisteddfod competitions and is apparently not found before the 18th century.J. Morris-Jones (1925), , p. 336.
English imitations