Englyn lleddfbroest, én-glin lléd-uhv-broyst (diphthong half rhymed englyn), the 7th codified Official Welsh Meter, an Englyn, is close to impossible to emulate in English. Therefore, if you want to give this one a try, consider yourself successful if you get sort of close to these sounds. As the on-line site Kalliope says “in English, cheat”.
The defining features of the englyn lleddfbroest are:
• stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains.
• syllabic, 7 syllable lines.
rhymed, all of the lines half rhymes but the four half-rhymes must be the diphthongs ae, oe, wy, and ei in whatever order.
x x x x x x ae x x x x x x oe x x x x x x wy x x x x x x ei or ai |
Llawen dan glaerwen len laes, lleddfolwg gloyn amlwg glwys, llathrlun manol a foleis, llarieidd foneddigeidd foes. —- Einion Offeiriad 15th century |
Absolute Nonsense
Sorry, even cheating fails,
to try writing Welsh forms foils
artistry and yet appeals
to poets creating howls.
— Judi Van Gorder
The Agave Cactus by Stephen Arndt
Rings of fleshy leaves are joined
About the stalk they surround;
Its five-meter height attained,
Not a bud is there to find.
Half a century devoid
Of blooms that would make you proud,
When they flower, long delayed,
Yellow suns rise, open-eyed.
These gold flowers you enjoy
Took you fifty years, and now
You at last have had your day—
It is time for you to die.
I have fifty years of toil,
And though they’ve not yet grown foul,
I have hopes they will not fail
Before they have bloomed a while.
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=981
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.