The traditional Welsh poetic metres consist of 24 types of metre, called in Welsh. They are all written in cynghanedd of varying degrees of complexity. The classification is often attributed to the early 14th-century poet and grammarian Einion Offeiriad. It has been suggested that Einion may have chosen the number 24, since it conforms to the number of letters in the Welsh alphabet.J. Morris-Jones (1925), , pp. 358-9.There were also 24 hours in the day, 24 measures of instrumental music, 24 knights at Arthur's court, and so on: Parry (1961), p. 184. To achieve this number he divided some metres (such as ) into different types, and is said to have added some new metres of his own.Namely and : Parry (1961), p. 189. Einion grouped the metres into three different types: (short stanza), (longer poem in rhyming couplets), and (more complex metres used in odes). In his original classification, there were 12 and , and 12 , also symbolic numbers.
Later in the 14th century, Dafydd Ddu o Hiraddug, edited Einion's list and made minor changes. He joined and under one heading called and added to . It was this new list that Dafydd Nanmor used in the 15th century in his ode for Dafydd ap Tomas ap Dafydd demonstrating the use of all the 24 metres.J. Morris-Jones (1925), , p. 349. Dafydd Nanmor's ode is printed on pages 379–382 of .
In the 15th century at the Carmarthen Eisteddfod of 1451 the list of metres was modified by Dafydd ab Edmwnd. He omitted two of the older forms, namely the thee-line and , and added two new ones, and .Thomas Roberts, Dafydd ab Edmwn,Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Only a few of the metres were widely used by the professional poets (), and the use of some of the more complicated ones is confined to occasional poems of technical virtuosity dating to the end of the Middle Ages. In fact, John Morris-Jones showed that only 12 of the metres were used by the (12th and 13th-century poets)Morris-Jones dates the period of the to 1120–1300: J. Morris-Jones (1925), , p. xviii. and that the rest were added to the list by "clever and somewhat arrogant manipulation of recognized metres".
The current rules for submission of a poem for the Bardic Chair competition at the National Eisteddfod are that it should consist of an ode or collection of poems in strict , in more than one of the traditional measures, up to 250 lines.Eisteddfod Chair competition rules. In recent competitions the most commonly used metres for odes have been and . Two other metres, , and , are commonly used to transition between sections.Alan Llwyd (2010), .
The 24 metres The twenty-four Welsh poetic metres according to current bardic rules and as prescribed by Dafydd ap Edmwnd in 1451 are as follows:
The original 24 metres specified by Einion Offeiriad and described in John Morris-Jones (1925) , pp. 319–348, differ slightly from these. Einion's version includes the three-line and ; it divides the into two different types, named (using simple vowels) and (using long diphthongs); it omits and ; and combines and into one category.
Despite being more or less an exact contemporary of Dafydd ab Edmwnd (c. 1450–90), Dafydd Nanmor did not include Dafydd ab Edmwnd's two new metres in his ode written for his patron Dafydd ap Tomas ap Dafydd demonstrating the 24 metres, but instead used the and from Einion's original list.
Sources
The oldest copy of the book usually referred to as Gramadeg Einion Offeriad (anonymous, but thought to be by Einion) is preserved in the Red Book of Hergest, written in the late fourteenth century. A slightly later copy is found in Llanstephan MS. 3. Two later incomplete copies occur in Bangor MS. 1 and Peniarth MS. 20, both of which were probably written in the early part of the fifteenth century. All of these are slightly different, and appear to be revisions of the original work.Parry (1961), p. 178.
Other versions of the twenty-four Welsh metres found in manuscript sources dating to the 16th century include: Peniarth MS 56 (Traethawd y Felin, & c.) – Doesn't include the Dafydd ab Edmwnd metres ( and ). NLW MS 17116B (Latin homilies and Welsh material relating to heraldry, poetry and music) – Includes all the Edmwnd metres and the ("false measures", referring to metres such as , , , , old measures from the Red Book of Hergest and perhaps a few others). Peniarth MS 155 (Llyfr Richard Phylip o Picton) – Doesn't include the . Peniarth MS 147 (Cantrefi a chymydau Cymru, &c.) – The are included. Peniarth MS 77 (Barddoniaeth Lewis Glyn Cothi) – Doesn't include the Edmwnd metres or the . BL Add. 14875 – Includes the Edmwnd metres but not the . Llanstephan MS 55 (Poetry, vocabulary, Dafydd Ddu's Grammar, &c.) – Doesn't include the Edmwnd metres.
metres
Englyn unodl union
() is "by far the most popular" type of englyn. It is a four-line stanza consisting of a combination of one couplet and one couplet. The lines are therefore of 10, 6, 7 and 7 syllables; there is usually a caesura after the 5th syllable of line 1.
All four lines have the same rhyme, but the rhyme in line 1 comes before the end of the line, and is followed by an extra word or words called the , which can be one, two, or three syllables long. The is linked to a word in line 2 by consonance or by rhyme. Usually a dash is written between the rhyming word and the .
The first two lines of an are known as the ("shaft (of an arrow)") and the 3rd and 4th line are known as the ("feathers" or "fins").
The following is a riddleThe answer to the riddle is a pair of deer mating. by Dafydd ap Gwilym (14th century):The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse, p. 268; dafyddapgwilym.net poem 170.
Each line is decorated with consonantal : (T) = , (Cy) = , s.v. . (linking the end of line 1 with the beginning or middle of line 2), (C) = .
The following is a well-known by Tudur Aled (15th-16th century):
In the following example, the poet William Phylip (17th century) bids farewell to his home, Hendre Fechan in Merionethshire, which he was forced to flee because of his support for King Charles I:Oxford Book of Welsh Verse, no. 125, p. 252.
In a couplet like the first couplet of this poem, the can be linked to the middle of the next line either by rhyme or by consonance, but in an consonance is much more common. In the 51 from the 14th to 20th century printed in The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse (pp. 268–72, 528–36), every single one has consonantal rather than rhyme. However, rhyme is occasionally found, as in the following by Dafydd ap Gwilym, where rhymes with :
Englyn unodl crwca
The ("Crooked single-rhymed stanza") is similar to the except that the order is reversed. The first two lines are a couplet in the metre and the 3rd and 4th lines are a . Thus the lines are of 7 + 7 + 10 + 6 syllables.
This type of is hardly ever used. The following example is part of an ode composed by Goronwy Owen (18th century) to demonstrate all the 24 metres:Goronwy Owen, Marwnad John Owen:
Every line of the stanza is ornamented with . Instead of consonantal , as is usual in the , the () is linked to the following word by rhyme, as in the metre, thus making an extended covering the last line and a half.
Englyn cyrch is a stanza consisting of four 7-syllable lines, made up from a couplet, followed by an couplet. Lines one, two, and four rhyme, but line 3 rhymes with the word before the caesura in line 4.
The following example is by Dafydd Nanmor (15th century):
(L) = , (C) = , (T) = . There is also , in that all the lines begin with D.
This kind of can also be written with ("half-rhyme") in lines 1, 2, and 4 instead of rhyme.
The is very similar in its rhyme scheme to the popular South Wales verse form the . One difference is that the has eight syllables in the third line of the stanza, with four accents in that line.
Englyn proest cyfnewidiog
("the alternating half-rhyme ") is also called since the word can be masculine or feminine.
An has four lines, each line 7 syllables long. Instead of rhyme (), the four lines use (half-rhyme); that is, each line ends in the same consonant or consonants but uses a different vowel. The vowels in the rhymes must be either all short or all long, but not a mixture.J. Morris-Jones (1925), , p. 254.
Einion Offeiriad divided this type of into two subtypes, namely (using simple vowels) and (using long diphthongs).
Dafydd ap Gwilym included three stanzas of this metre in his poem ("Elegy for Llywelyn ap Gwilym", Dafydd's uncle, who was apparently murdered).dafyddapgwilym.net no 6. The remaining 32 stanzas of the poem are . The first of the stanzas is as follows:
(S) here = and (C) = . The rhymes can be stressed or unstressed at will.
Another example of this metre comes from a poem by Tudur Aled (16th century). Apart from this one stanza, the rest of the poem is composed in the metres and :The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse, p. 188.
(C) here = and (T) = .
Englyn proest cadwynog
In ("chained half-rhyme ") there are four lines, each seven syllables long. The rhyme scheme is A B A B; but the two rhymes must half-rhyme with each other according to the rules of .
The following example is by Goronwy Owen (18th century).Quoted in J. Morris-Jones, , p. 326. All four lines have (S):
The long diphthongs , which are considered "languid", do not rhyme with simple vowels, but must be used together. The following example is by Lewis Glyn Cothi (15th century):
metres
A , except for the , is a long poem made of rhyming couplets.
Awdl-gywydd is a type of that was originally popular amongst minstrel poets, before being adopted by professional poets in the fifteenth century. Among these was Dafydd ab Edmwnd, who decided that regular must be used in it. The metre, without added to it, continued to be used in (literally, "condut"; a religious song or carol) and harp stanzas. It was rare for it to be used on its own and therefore was commonly incorporated into the metrical forms and . Sometimes, is used to refer to just two lines of the normal quatrain, especially when incorporated into other forms.
An is very similar to a in that it has lines of seven syllables formed into couplets. The rhyme scheme, however, is different in that the final syllable of the first line of each couplet must rhyme with the syllable before the caesura of the second line, and the final syllable of the second line of a couplet must rhyme with the final syllable of all the couplets throughout the poem. An example of a single couplet is as follows:
The main rhyme -ig is repeated at the end of every couplet throughout the poem. is used just as in a . Here (S) = , (C) = . The second line of a couplet always has or , but the first line may have any type. Because of this consonantal in the last line, the ending of the first line when combined with the last line make an extended in each couplet.
The is so called because it has continuous rhyme () throughout the poem like an , but it is composed of couplets like a .
Cywydd deuair hirion (" of long couplets") is the most frequently used type of , and in fact, it is common for a poem in this metre to just be referred to simply as a . Popularised by Dafydd ap Gwilym in the 14th century, it became so commonly used that the period from 1330 to 1640 is sometimes known as the ("period of the s").J. Morris-Jones (1925), , p. xviii. This period also coincided with the introduction of strict rules for alliteration and rhyme, known as ("rigorous or strict harmony").
This metre was used for various purposes: praise poems, elegies, narratives, descriptions of the seasons or of nature, requests for a present or thanks for one, and love poems.