A () is a type of verse used in Welsh poetry of all periods, written in two lines, with one line of 10 syllables, and another of 9 syllables. There also exists the ("long ") of 10 syllables + 10, and the ("short ") of 10 syllables + 6.As defined by Wiliam Midleton (1593), quoted in , s.v. . is also the name of one of the 24 Traditional Welsh poetic metres.
A 19-syllable or 20-syllable has "cross-rhyming": that is, the syllable at the end of line 2 (which is the main rhyme of the poem) rhymes with a syllable 1, 2, or 3 syllables before the end of line 1, while the syllable at the end of line 1 rhymes with a syllable in the centre of line 2. The part of the line following the rhyme in line 1 is called the (literally, "attack word" or "aiming word"). Usually in writing there is a dash before the , but this is simply a metrical mark and does not necessarily represent a break in sense.
The following example of a 19-syllable is by Wiliam Llŷn (16th century):
In the centre of each line is a caesura, indicated here by a forward slash (/). In addition to the obligatory rhymes, a usually contains additional instances of rhyme and alliteration. From the 14th century onwards the system of ornamentation known as was obligatory. For example, the by William Llŷn above has in line 1 (as far as the dash), and in line 2.
When a has only six syllables in the second line, the is usually linked to the second line by consonance rather than rhyme (although rhyme is sometimes found). The following example is thought to be by Dafydd ap Gwilym (14th century):Dafydd ap Gwilym, dafyddapgwilym.net, poem 172, ("Verses of the Poet to his Hair"), with notes by Ann Parry Owen.
A 19-syllable can be joined to another to make a stanza of the metre, which is one of the 24 official traditional Welsh poetic metres used for entries to the competition for the bardic chair at the National Eisteddfod of Wales. Different lengths of are also combined with other lengths of line to make other metres such as , , , and .
The name appears to be connected to the adjective ("melted") and the verb ("to melt, blend"), perhaps because the two lines of the couplet blend with each other., s.v. .
Terminology The term (without an adjective) usually refers to the 19-syllable , while the term ("long ") is reserved for the rarer 20-syllable length.So ; similarly: Myrddin ap Dafydd, (online course), Geirfa dechnegol (see also lesson 13). However, some scholars use the term for both the 19-syllable and the 20-syllable .Examples of this usage are Nigel Blake, The Poetry of Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Southern Ceredigion (online course), ch. 4 Dafydd Nanmor; and Llewelyn Hopwood (ed.) ch. 4, Yr Oianau, note on 218-9.
The shorter , with six syllables in the second line, is known as ("short ") or ("curtailed ").
The break before the is known as the .Morris-Jones (1925), p. 315.
The caesura at the middle of the line is known as , from ("pausing place"). s.v. .
The syllable before the caesura of the second line, rhyming with the , is ("the syllable which is aimed at")., s.v. .
Accentuation According to John Morris-Jones,(1925) , pp. 273–7. in a 19 or 20-syllable , each line has exactly four accents, one of which is in the . For example:
In a , the second line has two accents:Morris-Jones (1925), pp. 277–81.
Three types of
The regular consists of sections of 5 + 5 + 5 + 4 syllables, and so has exactly the same rhythm and length as the metre, but with a different rhyme scheme.J. Morris-Jones (1925), , p. 315. The difference can be shown by the following examples.
The following verse is a 19-syllable written by Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch in his Elegy for Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, a Prince of Wales who died in 1282:The poem is in The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse, pp. 45-49.
As can be seen, each of the first three 5-syllable sections has the same rhyme, while the last section ends in the main rhyme ‑aw, which continues throughout the poem.
The following verse, a 19-syllable , is the opening line of the same poem:
Thus it can be seen that the main difference is that in the there is a repetition of the main rhyme before the end of line 1, while the secondary rhyme at the fifth syllable of line 1 is omitted.
The of a may be one, two, or three syllables long. In Dafydd ap Gwilym's poems, two is the most common length, then three, with one syllable being the least common.Crawford (1990), p. 305.
As well as the obligatory rhymes, a is also usually ornamented with additional rhymes and alliteration, known as . In the above example, both lines contain , but not extending to the end of the line.
The 20-syllable is very similar to the regular but with 10 syllables in its second line. It occurs as part of the metre. The following example is by Tudur Aled (15th/16th century):Quoted by (online course), ch. 13.
The first line of the above example has an irregular kind of in the consonantal echo . The second line has , with the sounds {R N B D stressed vowel F N} in the first half repeated in the same order in the second half.
A ("short "), also called ("curtailed "), is a with six syllables in the second line (in very early poems sometimes 5). A common use for the is as the first two lines of an . It is also used, mixed with couplets, in the metre (see below).
It differs from the regular 19-syllable in that the is usually linked to the first half of line 2 by consonance rather than rhyme (but sometimes rhyme is used instead).Examples with rhyme are in Dafydd ap Gwilym dafyddapgwilym.net poem 12, , verses 7 and 10. The repetition of consonants linking the with the first half of line 2 is known as ., s.v. . As with , the repeated consonants must come in the same order and be wrapped around the stressed vowel in the same way each time.
In the following by Thomas Jones (19th century), the first line (as far as the dash) has , combining rhyme and alliteration (). The (the words , "and the feasts") contains the consonants {R G L, stressed vowel, Dd}, which are echoed in the word ("lordly") the first half of line 2:
Sometimes several consonants are repeated, as above, but sometimes a single consonant is sufficient to link the two lines, provided that it precedes or follows the stressed vowel in the same way in each line, as in the following examples by Dafydd ap Gwilym:
Here -dëyrn and Déwi correspond, since each contains {D, stressed vowel}, which in turn is not followed by a consonant.
Here ól- and ŵyl- correspond, since both have {stressed vowel, L}.
The following is more complex, since the dád of is picked up by the dúd of , while the ádl of is picked up by áedl:
Each of the four examples above has in the first line as far as the dash, combining rhyme and alliteration; then follows , consisting of consonantal matching spread across two lines. When the is consonantal, the second half of line 2 is always without .Crawford (1985), p. 248.
It is also possible to have consonantal in the first line of a instead of , although this is less common. The following has in its first line:
Occasionally (but much less commonly) a has rhyme connecting the to the next line instead of consonant-matching. If so, the second line has all the way through. For example, in the following , both lines have :
The following has in line 1 as far as the dash, and in line 2:
The in early poetry
The was in use in Welsh poetry at an early date. A short of 9 syllables + 5 is used in the three-line verse form known as , such as this one from the 9th century:
The above joins the to the next line by consonance. The following , with a of 8 syllables + 5, uses rhyme instead of consonance:
The 19-syllable was also in use in au ("odes with a unified rhyme") at an early date, for example in the poem known as , which dates to the 9th century or earlier:
The alliteration concentrated in the centre of the line around the caesura () is typical of poetry of the early period and is known as .
In this poem both and verses occur every now and then at irregular intervals, interspersed with lines of and .
The in later poetry The 14th to 17th centuries (from Dafydd ap Gwilym to Tudur Aled) are regarded as the classical period of Welsh-language poetry, when many of the most famous poets were active. (See Welsh poetry and Welsh-language literature.) During this time the metres allowed in formal poetry were strictly regulated, and each line was expected to be ornamented with .
In the 14th and 15th centuries 24 different traditional Welsh poetic metres were prescribed for use in formal poetry. Various of these metres are made by combining a either with itself or with other lengths of line, as shown below.
The is made of a followed by a couplet of . It is very commonly used even up to the present day.
The following example by the 14th-century poet Dafydd ap Gwilym has unconventional of the preclassical type in lines 1 and 3:
(BG) = , (Cy) = , (C) = , (L) = .
The following is the first stanza of a poem lamenting the ruin of the house of Dafydd ap Gwilym's patron Ifor Hael at Bassaleg in South Wales. It was written by the 18th-century poet Evan Evans:The full poem is in The Oxford Book Welsh verse, pp. 322-3.
(S) = , (T) = . As well as , line 2 also has partial .
The following was written by John Morris-Jones (1864-1929):The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse, p. 534.
(L) = .For the rhyme ai = ei in , see Morris-Jones (1925), pp. 177-8.
An has the order of lines reversed: first a couplet of , followed by a . Although this is one of the 24 Traditional Welsh poetic metres, it is rarely used.
The following example, from a 19th-century gravestone in Pembrokeshire, has rhyme connecting the and the last line:
(metre)
Although other metres, such as , were already used in the pre-classical period, it seems that the metre was first used in 14th century. The first poet to make a stanza out of two verses is thought to have been Gwilym Ddu o Arfon in his ode to Sir Gruffudd Llwyd imprisoned in Rhuddlan Castle in the 1320s.J. Morris-Jones (1925), , p. 339, gives the date as 1322; however, historians doubt if Sir Gruffudd was imprisoned at that date.
According to John Morris-Jones poems in this metre are made of 4-line stanzas each consisting of two verses. In one of Dafydd ap Gwilym's poems (the Ode for Ifor Hael) this is clearly the case, with the name Ifor coming at the end of every fourth line. In another poem, however, (the Elegy for Ifor and Nest) there are 15 verses, which, since they all have the same rhyme, seem to form a continuous series.
This is a highly ornamental metre, difficult to compose, and not much used today. Not only does each line of the part of the poem have the same main rhyme, but the same letters also begin each line (a feature known as ). There is also in every line, resulting in extra internal rhymes and alliteration.
The 14th-century poet Dafydd ap Gwilym used the metre in five poems. These are the praise poems , , , and , and the satirical . The religious poem also uses the metre, but for stylistic and other reasons is thought not to be by Dafydd.See dafyddapgwilym.net nos. 11, 17, 5, 9, 31 and 152. In each poem the verses are preceded by a number of stanzas.Crawford (1985), p. 238.
The final stanza of Dafydd's poem ("Lament for Angharad") is as follows:
Here (S) = , (C) = .
Dafydd Nanmor (15th century) used the metre in his lament for Tomas ap Rhys from Tywyn. One of the verses is as follows:
The metre is an old form consisting of two lines of nine syllables followed by a . In each line there is a caesura usually at the 5th syllable. An example is this verse by Wiliam Llŷn (16th century):
As well as the obligatory rhymes, the poet has used in every line: (L) = , (S) = , (C) = .
A similar metre called also exists, which has four 9-syllable lines followed by a .