Gwenllian's Poetry Primer

An Introduction to Welsh Poetic forms

by Katherine L. Bryant
Known in the Society for Creative Anachronism as Gwenllian ferch Madog Llangollen Introduction and Sources
Part I: Cynghanedd
Part II: The 24 Forms
Part III: Examples (not ready yet)
Appendix: A Guide to Welsh Pronunciation (not ready yet)

A blue marbleized line

Introduction and Sources

Introduction

The Welsh have long been regarded as superb poets, and with reason. The eloquence and power of Welsh poetry are clear even to those unfamiliar with the language. As part of understanding my persona in the Society for Creative Anachronism -- a late 14th-early 15th-century Welshwoman -- I started trying to write some poetry in the Welsh forms, though writing in English (I know a little Welsh, but hardly enough to write poetry!).

I discovered that adapting English to the Welsh forms can be extremely difficult. The two languages simply have very different sound patterns. Welsh-style poetry in English, I am convinced, cannot have the same power that the original Welsh would. That said, it is possible to write poems that capture some of the flavor of the original Welsh. Modern English and Welsh poets have quite successfully adapted the traditional forms to expressing English. I make no claims for my own ability, but I certainly enjoy the effort.

This primer is intended as an introduction to the rules and structures of Welsh poetry. Welsh poetry is generally considered to have reached its heyday in the 14th century with the works of Dafydd ap Gwilym and other poets. During this time, two poets, Einion Offeiriad and Dafydd Ddu Athro, codified the "official" Welsh poetic forms, and it is on their classification that this primer is based.

The primer is divided into three parts:

Part 1 covers cynghanedd (pron. king-HAH-neth, th as in "then"), the rules of rhyme and consonantal correspondence.
Part 2 covers the 24 poetic forms codified by Einion Offeiriad and Dafydd Ddu Athro.
Part 3 contains examples, primarily my own work at writing English poetry in the Welsh forms.

I've also added an appendix on Welsh pronunciation.

Sources

There are several excellent books on Welsh poetry available in most good university libraries. My sources for this primer are:

Rowlands, Eurys I., ed. Poems of the Cywyddwyr. Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1976.

Williams, Gwyn. An Introduction to Welsh Poetry. London: Faber and Faber Ltd., 1953.

For the Appendix, I used Rhys Jones, T. J. Living Welsh. Sevenoaks, Kent: Hodder and Stoughton Educational, 1977.

Poems in English are my own except as noted.

Disclaimer

I do not claim to be an expert on Welsh poetics. This primer has been compiled through research in my spare time, and I hope it is reasonably accurate. Should someone more knowledgeable than I find an error, please let me know and I will correct it.

Copyright and Permission to Distribute

It must be distributed free of charge.
Do not alter the text in any way (excepting removal of HTML tags and/or text reformatting for printing or readability purposes).
This copyright and permission to distribute notice must be included.

If you would like to include this primer in anything you're working on, I'd be flattered! I'd appreciate knowing about it for my own curiosity's sake.