The (; plural ) is one of the most important metrical forms in traditional Welsh poetry ().

There are a variety of forms of the , but the word on its own is generally used to refer to the ("long-lined couplet") as it is by far the most common type.

The first recorded examples of the date from the early 14th century, when it is believed to have been developed. This was the favourite metre of the Poets of the Nobility from the 14th to 16th centuries and is still used in the 21st.

In Bardic Grammar (1350–1400), Einion Offeiriad, in addition to the , refers to three other types: , , and . All four types occur in the list of the twenty-four traditional Welsh poetic meters adopted in the later Middle Ages.

The name has no obvious etymology, but it is cognate with the Old Irish word , meaning "harmonious" or "rhyming".

cyCywydd deuair hirion

The ("cywydd of long couplets") is the most commonly used of the four metres and often referred to simply as . Apart from three couplets in an archaic style in Einion Offeiriad's description of the 24 metres, no lines in this metre survive from before the time of Dafydd ap Gwilym (fl. c. 1340–70), who used it extensively.

The metre consists of a series of rhyming couplets formed of seven-syllable lines. Usually each line is also decorated with , the poet being free to use the four different types in random order (but if is used, it is generally found only in the first line of a couplet). There is no rule about how many couplets there must be in a .

Every couplet has end-rhyme. The two end-rhymes of a couplet must be either stressed and unstressed, or unstressed and stressed. The rhyme may vary from couplet to couplet, or may remain the same. In lines with or there is also internal rhyme. In some poems, as well as rhyme at the end of the lines, there is also at the beginning of lines, linking two lines of a couplet, or several couplets, by their initial letters.

In most lines there is a break or caesura ( ("pausing place")) near the centre of the line, usually after the third syllable, but sometimes after the 2nd or 4th. In it may sometimes come after the first syllable.

A has two principal accents (namely, on the word before the caesura and on the word before the end of the line), and also either one or two secondary accents. If there is only one secondary accent, it falls in the second half of the line, e.g. ("Your religion, fair best of maids"). A line with usually has three accents, e.g. ("Spices in the dishes of the others").

The early masters of were Dafydd ap Gwilym, Llywelyn Goch ap Meurig Hen, Gruffudd Gryg and Iolo Goch in the 14th century; Guto'r Glyn, Dafydd Nanmor and Lewys Glyn Cothi in the 15th century; and Tudur Aled, Lewys Môn and Wiliam Llŷn in the 16th.

The metre experienced a revival in the 18th century, thanks largely to the work of poets such as Goronwy Owen and Lewis Morris (1701–1765). Iolo Morganwg was also capable of composing excellent , although he attributed many of them to medieval poets like Dafydd ap Gwilym. Although the lost ground to the Eisteddfod and new forms of lyric poetry in the 19th century, it regained its prestige in the 20th century and remains a popular metre among contemporary poets writing in the strict metres. It is one of the metres prescribed for the Chair competition at the National Eisteddfod.

Examples

The following example shows the first three couplets of the 14th-century poet Dafydd ap Gwilym's poem ("Insulting his Servant"), a work of 33 couplets describing Dafydd's unsuccessful attempt to chat up a girl. The different types of are noted as L = , S = , T = , C = .

Most lines contain a caesura ( ("pausing place")), dividing the line into two. (But in the case of there are three sections.) Often, but not always, there is a break in sense at the caesura.

In the case of , most or all of the consonants in the first half of the line (except the very last) are echoed in the same order in the second half. With most or all of the consonants in the first half are echoed at the end of the line, but there are one or more consonants in the middle of the line which are unmatched.

The lines here are not all of exactly the same type; for example, in line 4 two monosyllables are contrasted by their consonance (), but in line 6 the half-lines end in two disyllables () with their accent on the penultimate syllable, creating a different rhythm to the line. Similarly the two lines (3 and 5) are of different types.

Not every line of Dafydd ap Gwilym's contains . In some, such as ("The Girls of Llanbadarn"), as many as 43% of lines have no . There is even one poem, ("The Poet and the Greyfriar"), which contains no at all, but is written in a metre called , which is believed to be a popular precursor of the metre. This metre is more or less identical to except that it has no and the rules for rhyme are less strict.

In the 15th century the style of became stricter. and became less common, and the proportion of went up. The following is the start of a poem by Tudur Aled (c. 1465-1625) requesting a horse for his patron from the Abbot of Aberconwy:

A couplet, complete with the usual , is also found in the second half of the commonly used four-line (see Englyn).

cyCywydd deuair fyrion

The or " of short couplets" is a less commonly used metre consisting of rhyming couplets of lines of four syllables each. The two lines are sometimes written side by side, and sometimes one above the other. The earliest examples had no but later on was added.

An example (but without ) is the poem ("Sending Birds as Love-Messengers") by Iolo Morganwg (1747–1826). This poem is written with the two lines of the couplet side by side. It begins:

The poem consists of 31 couplets in all. In each half of the couplet there are two accents, making four for the complete line.

A later example, mostly with , comes from part of a longer poem in various metres, called ("Psalm to Mammon"), by John Morris-Jones.

cyCywydd llosgyrnog

The ("tailed ") is formed of stanzas each of which consists of a group of two (sometimes three, or four) eight-syllable lines, followed by one seven-syllable line. The eight-syllable lines rhyme together and also rhyme with a word in the middle of the seven-syllable line. The seven-syllable line ends in a rhyme which is repeated at the end of each stanza throughout the poem. This final line is called the ("tail").

The metre is not commonly used. John Morris-Jones conjectured that it may have originated from Latin, since a similar metre was occasionally used for Latin hymns in the medieval period; though the rhyme scheme is Welsh.

The following example comes from an ode written by the 15th-century poet Dafydd Nanmor to illustrate all the 24 classical metres. Each line is decorated with :

There are no further verses in this metre in the poem, but the end-rhyme -il is repeated in the which follows.

cyAwdl-gywydd

The ("ode-cywydd") is very similar to the in that it has couplets made of seven-syllable lines, decorated with the usual . It differs only in its rhyme-scheme. The first line of each couplet rhymes with the word immediately before the caesura of the second line, while the end-rhyme of the second line is the same as the end rhyme of all the other second lines in the poem. Thus it is like an in that the same rhyme () continues throughout the poem.

An example is the poem of Gutun Owain (15th century) addressed to the Abbot of Valle Crucis Abbey. It begins:

The poem has 23 couplets in all. The first line of a couplet can use any kind of , but the second line, in order to avoid the confusion of too many internal rhymes, always has either or (i.e. the types which involve consonants only), meaning that the end of the first line and the whole of the second line together form an extended in each couplet. There is no requirement for the rhymes to be stressed or unstressed.

Another example is the ("Awdl-Cywydd in praise of St David") by Lewys Glyn Cothi (15th century). It begins:

The poem has 16 couplets all rhyming in -on.

Further reading

• Meic Stephens, 1986, The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales, Oxford University Press.

See also

• Englyn

• Awdl

References