Englyn
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates
Wide in his knowledge;
A man acerbic, fearless and fluent,
And thorough in doctrine.
Template:Lang (Template:IPA; plural Template:Lang) is a traditional Welsh short poem form. It uses quantitative metres, involving the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme. Each line contains a repeating pattern of consonants and accent known as Template:Lang.
Early history
The Template:Lang is found in the work of the earliest attested Welsh poets (the Template:Lang), where the main types are the three-line Template:Lang and Template:Lang.<ref>Rowland, Jenny, Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A Study and Edition of the Englynion (Cambridge: Brewer, 1990), p. 305.</ref> It is the only set stanzaic metre found in the early Welsh poetic corpus, and explanations for its origins have tended to focus on stanzaic Latin poetry and hymns; however, it is as likely to be a development within the Brittonic poetic tradition.<ref>Rowland, Jenny, Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A Study and Edition of the Englynion (Cambridge: Brewer, 1990), pp. 305-8.</ref> Whereas the metrical rules of later Template:Lang are clear (and are based on counting syllables), the precise metre of the early Template:Lang is debated and could have involved stress-counting.<ref>Rowland, Jenny, Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A Study and Edition of the Englynion (Cambridge: Brewer, 1990), pp. 308-32.</ref> The earliest Template:Lang are found as marginalia written in a tenth-century hand in the Juvencus Manuscript.<ref>A Selection of Early Welsh Saga Poems, ed. by Jenny Rowland (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2014), p. xxvi.</ref> Many early Template:Lang form poems which seem to represent moments of characters' emotional reflection in stories now lost: Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang. Others survey heroic tradition, for example the Template:Lang or Geraint son of Erbin, and others again are lyric, religious meditations and laments such as the famous Template:Lang and Template:Lang.
Types of Template:Lang
There are a number of types of Template:Lang. Details of their structures are as follows; not all of these, however, are included in the Traditional Welsh poetic metres.
Also known as "the short-ended Template:Lang". It consists of a stanza of three lines. The first line has ten syllables (in two groups of five), the second has five to six; and the third has seven. The seventh, eighth or ninth syllable of the first line introduces the rhyme and this is repeated on the last syllable of the other two lines. The fourth syllable of the second line may echo the final syllable of the first through either rhyme or consonance. Template:Quote
The "straight one-rhymed Template:Lang", identical to Template:Lang except that it adds a fourth, rhyming, seven-syllable line at the end. Thus it consists of four lines of ten, six, seven and seven syllables. The seventh, eighth or ninth syllable of the first line introduces the rhyme and this is repeated on the last syllable of the other three lines. The part of the first line after the rhyme alliterates with the first part of the second line.
This is an Template:Lang by Alan Llwyd:
The "soldier's Template:Lang". This consists of three seven-syllable lines. All three lines rhyme. Template:Quote
The "even Template:Lang", more common in the Middle Ages than later. This consists of four seven-syllable lines. All four lines rhyme. One example (showing the half-rhyme of Template:Lang with Template:Lang) is: Template:Quote
The "short crooked Template:Lang". This is like Template:Lang, but orders the lines differently: seven syllables in the first, ten syllables (in two groups of five) in the second, and five to six syllables in the third. In the following example, the second line does not participate in the rhyme: Template:Quote
The "crooked one-rhyme Template:Lang". This Template:Lang is like Template:Lang, except that it adds an extra seven-syllable line at the beginning. This is made up of four lines of seven, seven, ten and six syllables. The last syllables of the first, second and last lines and the seventh, eighth or ninth syllable of the third line all rhyme.
The "seeking Template:Lang". This form has four lines of seven syllables each. The final syllables of the first, second, and last line rhyme. The final syllable of the third line rhymes with the second, third or fourth syllable of the last line: Template:Quote
In this Template:Lang, there are four seven-syllable lines that half-rhyme with each other (half-rhyme means that the final consonants agree). Template:Quote
This is identical to the Template:Lang except that the half rhymes must use the Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, and Template:Lang diphthongs.
The "chain half-rhyme Template:Lang". In this version there are four lines of seven syllables. The first and third lines rhyme and the second and fourth half rhyme on the same vowel sound as the full rhyme syllables.
The "reciprocal half-rhyme Template:Lang". This has four lines of seven syllables. All four lines half-rhyme, and there is additional Template:Lang.
This is a hybrid between an Template:Lang and a Template:Lang. The first two lines are as for an Template:Lang, and there follow two more lines of ten syllables each.
After the first two lines there is just one more line of three syllables or fewer, which follows the rhyme of the first two lines.
Examples
Here are two Template:Lang by the 12th-century Welsh poet Template:Lang:
The poet Robert Graves wrote an Template:Lang in English, included in the Juvinalia (1910–1914) of his Complete Poems
Here is an English-language Template:Lang by novelist Robertson Davies.
Grace in the form of an Template:Lang (with Template:Lang shown) in a poem by W. D. Williams:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Breton
Breton poet Template:Lang also writes Breton-language Template:Lang; in 2020, he has published a collection of them called Template:Lang. (http://brezhoneg.org/en/node/11057)