Since I've just been working on Welsh poetic forms, I thought I'd continue on with another Welsh form this week. The Englyn penfyr is a poetic form consisting of any number of tercets. In each stanza, the lines are composed of ten and seven syllables, with all lines sharing a rhyme pattern.
The first line has ten syllables and the seventh, eighth or ninth syllable of the first line introduces the rhyme. This rhyme is repeated on the last syllable of the second and third lines. The fourth syllable of the second line echoes the final syllable of the first through either rhyme or consonance. Here's what the pattern looks like.
x x x x x x x a x x
x x x x x x x x x a
x x x x x x x x x a
You can read more about a variety of Englyn at Wikipedia.
That's it. Easy-peasy, right? I hope you'll join me this week in writing an Englyn Penfyr. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
Aspiration
ReplyDeleteMy pen's run dry before the poem's born.
I've flat-torn half the house apart for more.
Searching every room, pilfered drawer by drawer
to find the pencils dull: erasers chewed.
And a crayon. Crude, but available.
No doubt, this truth is unassailable,
I'll never learn to write like Jane Yolen
if there's no inked-up pen or two in sight,
glasses, a tablet and a light at night
when the spirit seems to choose to move me.
Must order! Ready all supplies 'cause dreams
flee. NOTE TO SELF: pens/cases. paper/reams.
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