The cywydd (; plural ) is one of the most important metrical forms in traditional

Welsh poetry Welsh poetry refers to poetry of the Welsh people or nation. This includes poetry written in Welsh, poetry written in English by Welsh or Wales based poets, poetry written in Wales in other languages or poetry by Welsh poets around the world. H ...

(

cerdd dafod ''Cerdd dafod'' (literally ''tongue craft'') is the Welsh tradition of creating verse or poetry to a strict metre in the Welsh language. History The history of ''cerdd dafod'' can be traced to 6th century Welsh poets such as Aneirin and Taliesin, ...

). There are a variety of forms of the cywydd, but the word on its own is generally used to refer to the ("long-lined couplet") as it is by far the most common type. The first recorded examples of the cywydd date from the early 14th century, when it is believed to have been developed. This was the favourite metre of the Poets of the Nobility, the poets working from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, and it is still used today. The cywydd consists of a series of seven-syllable lines in rhyming couplets, with all lines written in

cynghanedd In Welsh-language poetry, ''cynghanedd'' (, literally "harmony") is the basic concept of sound-arrangement within one line, using stress, alliteration and rhyme. The various forms of ''cynghanedd'' show up in the definitions of all formal Welsh v ...

. One of the lines must finish with a stressed syllable, while the other must finish with an unstressed syllable. The rhyme may vary from couplet to couplet, or may remain the same. There is no rule about how many couplets there must be in a cywydd. The and the related , and the all occur in the list of the twenty four

traditional Welsh poetic meters The traditional Welsh poetic meters consist of 24 types of poetic meter, called Y Pedwar Mesur ar Hugain in Welsh. They are all written in cynghanedd of varying degrees of complexity. Although called "traditional," they were compiled – and late ...

adopted in the later

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

References

Meic Stephens Meic Stephens (23 July 1938 – 2 July 2018) was a Welsh literary editor, journalist, translator, and poet. Birth and education Meic Stephens was born on 23 July 1938 in the village of Treforest, near Pontypridd, Glamorgan. He was educated at ...

, 1986, ''The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales'', Oxford University Press. Welsh poetry Medieval Welsh literature Welsh-language literature Western medieval lyric forms Poetic rhythm {{Wales-stub

See also

References