(; 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.

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.

Early history

The is found in the work of the earliest attested Welsh poets (the ), where the main types are the three-line and . 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. 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. The earliest are found as marginalia written in a tenth-century hand in the Juvencus Manuscript.

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. 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.

Three-line cyenglynion

There are a number of types of . Details of their structures are as follows; not all of these, however, are included in the Traditional Welsh poetic metres.

cyEnglyn milwr

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 three-line of the poem are 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):

As well as the irregular line-lengths, the caesura is also sometimes irregularly placed, as in the third line above.

cyEnglyn penfyr

literally means "the short-ended ". It consists of a stanza of three lines. The first line has ten syllables (in two groups of five), the second has five to six; and the third has seven. The seventh, eighth or ninth syllable of the first line introduces the rhyme and this is repeated on the last syllable of the other two lines. The third syllable of the second line may echo the final syllable of the first through either rhyme or consonance.

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.

cyEnglyn byr crwca

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:

In line 1 of the above example, ("breaks" or "roofs over") has two syllables, thus making the line seven syllables long. The first line above has an approximation to . Line 2 has . and are linked by .

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 .

cyEnglyn cil-dwrn

The " of the cupped hand". 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:

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 and is not one of the ancient measures of Welsh poetry.

Four-line cyenglynion

cyEnglyn unodl union

The "straight one-rhymed ", , is identical to except that it adds a fourth, rhyming, seven-syllable line at the end. Thus it consists of four lines of ten, six, seven and seven syllables. 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. 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)").

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 listing ten virtues of his patron Ifor ap Llewelyn, only two have rhyme, including the tenth:

(S) = , (C) = , (T) = .

cyEnglyn unodl crwca

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):

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 .

cyEnglyn gwastad

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.

cyEnglyn cyrch

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.

cyEnglyn proest dalgron (gyfnewidiog)

("half-rhyme") is a kind of rhyme in which the final consonants agree but the vowels are different; the term , feminine , (literally "round ended") is used of simple vowels as opposed to long diphthongs; ("exchanging") means that the vowel of the rhyme changes in each line. 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) = :

cyEnglyn lleddfbroest

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).

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. 

cyEnglyn proest gadwynog

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:

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 .)

cyEnglyn toddaid

This is a hybrid between an and a . It consists of a (10 syllables + 6), exactly as in the first two lines of an , followed by a long with 10 syllables + 10.

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 is not one of the 24 official bardic metres specified in Eisteddfod competitions and is apparently not found before the 18th century.

Further examples

The following is by the 12th-century Welsh poet . It describes the mighty sound of the war-horn of Llewelyn the Great:

The following is grace in the form of an in a poem by W. D. Williams. Line 1 (from to ) has (T), line 3 (S), and line 4 (C). The () is linked to the beginning of line 2 () by (Cy):

English imitations

The poet Robert Graves wrote an in English, included in the Juvinalia (1910–1914) of his Complete Poems

Here is an English-language by novelist Robertson Davies.

These lack the full but in terms of syllable-count and rhyme conform to the pattern of .

Breton

Breton poet also writes Breton-language ; in 2020, he has published a collection of them called . (http://brezhoneg.org/en/node/11057)

See also

• Traditional Welsh poetic metres

References