Tag Archives: cross rhyme

Englyn unodl crwca

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Englyn unodl crwca, én-glin éen-oddle crewc (crooked short one rhyme englyn) the 4th codified Official Welsh Meter, an Englyn,, is the structural reverse of Englyn unodl union which is far more popular. The englyn unodl crwca is rarely used.

The Englyn unodl crwc is:
• stanzaic, written as any number of quatrains,
• syllabic, 7-7-10-6 syllable per line.
• rhymed, mono rhymed. In L3 the main rhyme is found in the last half of the line followed by caesura and gair cyrch.
• composed with “gair cyrch” in L3 (syllables in the last half of a line that follow the main rhyme marked by caesura. The gair cyrch end rhyme is to be echoed or consonated as secondary rhyme in the 1st half of L4. The caesura often appears as a dash.)

x x x x x x A

x x x x x x A

x x x x x x A – x x b

x b x x x A

Kyt ymwnel kywyt, bryt brys,

yn llawen llewych yslys,

lletryt dallon donn ef ai dengys—gud

lliw blaen gruc Generys.

—- Einion Offeiriad 15th century

Upon this Rock by Judi Van Gorder

He chose a simple fisherman,

rock foundation holds God’s plan,

His anointed Sacristan – head of church,

Peter’s perch . . . Vatican.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=984
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

Englyn Unodl Crwca
Type: Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic
Description: (englin eenoddle crewcah) A quatrain with syllable counts: seven, seven, ten, and six and having rhyme and cross-rhyme.
Origin: Welsh
Schematic:
xxxxxxa
xxxxxxa
xxxxxxaxxb
xbxxxa

a = main rhyme.
b = subsidiary rhyme that has consonance,
assonance, alliteration

Cross rhymes can shift a few positions:
a = 7-9
b = 2-4
Rhythm/Stanza Length: 4


Pasted from http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/001/116.shtml
My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his years of work on the wonderful Poetrybase resource.

Related Welsh Form are HERE.

My example

Meth-a-morphosis

Meth-a-morphosis (Englyn unodl cdwc)

My friends girl-friend’s mouth’s a mess
It is meth-mouth I confess.
The facts she will not address – what great cost
to be lost to excess.

She is not dumb, she’s aware.
Need’s too strong, she doesn’t care
though she knows there’s help out there – not for her!
She’ll defer to despair.

© Lawrencealot – December 12, 2014

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Englyn unodl cdwca

Droighneach

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Droighneach (drá-yi-nah, ‘thorny’) is a traditional Irish quatrain stanza of 9-to-13-syllable lines alternately rimed (abab), always on 3-syllable words, with at least two cross-rimes linking the pair of lines in each half and involving those lines’ end-words, plus alliteration in every line, usually between the end-word and the preceding stressed word—always the case for a quatrain’s last line. Being Irish, it also requires the dunedh, meaning it should end where it began (opening word or phrase or line repeated at the end). It is also described here:

http://www.thepoetsgarret.com/celtic1.html#dro
…and here:
http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1172
My thanks to Gary Kent Spain, aka Venicebard on Allpoetry.
I have copied below both links he provided, unfortunately neither poet was able to follow the first requirement – ending each line with a three-syllable word.
Author Notes accompanying Gary’s Poem below:
My hobby since childhood—never quite grew up! In the 80s, when I was a programmer and had tons of money but no life, I acquired a collection of micro-scale (1/300) WW2 Russian front stuff: once counted just draft horses and had over a thousand, plus several hundred cavalry. Now, of course, no time nor space for them, so the above is all in my mind at the moment.
God’s Paintbrush (Self-Satirical Droighneach)
I’m a military miniature:  commander,
whose panzer division invades a vast library.
No adversary yet:  I’d prefer to philander
but, in all candor, can’t, be’ng lead—quite the contrary!
I’m ten millimeters tall, dark-haired, and handsomely
decked-out in dandy garb, my honor unimpaired.
A fine match! had God not dared, rudely, randomly,
to make me small, handy for his wars, all undeclared.
I see God now, armed with air-brush, advancing
to paint pants with coats field grey, dapper and debonair.
Care He’ll take to touch hands and face with flesh, enhancing
our stance’s appearance, dirt-dappled and doctrinaire.
Shall we commend God’s industry?  Call His quandary
fond, airy prospect of war-games couched on calendar.
His hand arrays us, ready by time’s boundary.
I’m a military miniature:  come and err.
[And, dear jongleur, please pronounce err properly, else all will end up unseemly and up in the ‘air’!]
_________________________

Droighneach (dra’iy-nach) Gaelic, is Oglachas, straying from some of the stringent rules of dán direach yet adding other requirements which make the frame no less difficult. It is sometimes referred to as “the thorny” because of the degree of difficulty in writing this ancient Irish Verse Form that employs cross rhyme and requires 3 syllable end words.

The Droighneach is:
• a loose stanzaic form usually written with any number of octaves but it could be quatrains.
• syllabic with each line with 9 to 13 syllables.
• terminated, written with 3 syllable end words.
• rhymed, with alternating end rhyme abab cdcd etc.
• composed with cross rhyme. There are at least two cross-rhymes in each couplet and alliteration in each line; usually the final word of the line alliterates with the preceding stressed word, this is always true of the last line.
• written with the defining features of most Celtic poems, cywddydd (harmony of sound) and dunadh (beginning and ending the poem with the same word, phrase or line.)

(x x d) b x x x (x x a)
x x x x a x x x (x x b)
x x x x x b (x x a)
x x x x a x x (x x b)
x x x x x d x x (x x c)
x x x c x x x x x x (x x d)
x x d x x x x x x (x x c)
x x x x c x (d x d)
Incomprehensible by Judi Van Gorder
Brutality bursts in the streets of Fallujah,
a plethora of purposeless mutilation,
the execution, a disgrace to Allah,
a disgusting coup d’ etat in jubilation.
Humanity is not served by the criminals,
victim’s funerals expose the amorality.
A pity mankind oft’ acts as cannibals,
animals display less base brutality.
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?/topic/1172-droighneach/
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on the PMO resource.
____________

Droighneach (dra’iy-nach):
A loose stanza form. Each line can have from nine to thirteen syllables, and it always ends in a trisyllabic word. There is rhyming between lines one and three, two and four, etc. Stanzas can have any number of quatrains. There are at least two cross-rhymes in each couplet and alliteration in each line; usually the final word of the line alliterates with the preceding stressed word, and this is always true of the last line.

x x d b x x x (x x a)
x x x x a x x x (x x b)
x x x x x b (x x a)
x x x x a x x (x x b)
x x x x x d x x (x x c)
x x x c x x x x x x (x x d)
x x d x x x x x x (x x c)
x x x x c x (x x d)

Silken Lady
A silken coat enhances her elegance,
casually clad, but warm and enfolding
her slim limbs in folds of furry fragrance;
green eyes gaze haughtily- a heart beholding.
She licks her lips, a pink tongue seen- disappears;
a lazy yawn, with blinking eyes, amazes,
her devoted audience she domineers.
A soft scream- hairs on end- her purr appraises.
©Leny Roovers 29-10-2004
Pasted from http://www.thepoetsgarret.com/celtic1.html#dro
__________________________________

My example poem

Grandiose (Droighneach)

Contemplate before the jongleurs congregate.
If your work is great, that work they may elevate
some day (some say you’ have to wait and die), consecrate
what they appreciate, and critics nominate.

Given my more likely fate (if you are wondering)
to wander in obscurity (we populate
the wide world, mate) and cause laughs by my blundering.
To be but an underling is hard to contemplate.

© Lawrencealot – August 8, 2014

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Droighneach

Cyrch a Chwta

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Cyrch a Chwta
Type:
Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic
Description:
(kirch a choota) An octave of seven-syllable lines rhymed aaaaaaba with cross-rhyme of b in the third, fourth, or fifth syllable of line 8.
Origin:
Welsh
Schematic:
Rhyme: aaaaaaba
Meter: xxxxxxx
xxxxxxa
xxxxxxa
xxxxxxa
xxxxxxa
xxxxxxa
xxxxxxa
xxxxxxb
xxbxxxa or xxxbxxa or xxxxbxa
Rhythm/Stanza Length:
8
My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his fine Poetrybase resource.
Example Poem
My Tree     (Cyrch a Chwta)
My dad went to war, but he
took time first to plant a tree
when I was a baby, wee.
Dad never came back to me,
he perished when I was three.
I learned of him at mom’s knee
That tree gave shade, let me swing.
That’s something dad knew would be.
© Lawrencealot – April 24, 2014

Gwadodyn

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This is a complex form for which I found disparate specifications on the internet.
What is certain is:
It is an old Welsh form
It is syllabic, usually 9/9/10/9
It is stanzaic, usually quatrains or sestets
It is rhyming, usually mono-rhyme of the 9 syllable lines
And with internal and/or interleaved rhyme for the long line.
Here are the better references I used:
The gwawdodyn is a Welsh poetic form with a couple variations. However, both versions are comprised of quatrains (4-line stanzas) that have a 9/9/10/9 syllable pattern and matching end rhymes on lines 1, 2, and 4. The variations are made in that third line:
  • One version has an internal rhyme within the third line. So there’s a rhyme somewhere within the third line with the end rhyme on the third line.
  • The other version has an internal rhyme within the third line that rhymes with an internal rhyme in the fourth line.
In both cases, the rhyme starts somewhere in the middle of the third line and it is a unique rhyme to the end rhyme in lines 1, 2, and 4.
Here’s a possible diagram for the first version (with the x’s symbolizing syllables):
1-xxxxxxxxa
2-xxxxxxxxa
3-xxxxbxxxxb
4-xxxxxxxxa
Note: The “b” rhyme in the middle of line 3 could slide to the left or right as needed by the poet.
Here’s an example I wrote for the first version:
“Cheat,” by Robert Lee Brewer
The rumors you’ve heard are true: I run
to forget my past. What I have won,
I’ve lost in lasting memories, blasting
through my brain like bullets from a gun.
As you can see, “run,” “won,” and “gun” rhyme with each other, as do “lasting” and “blasting.”
*****
*****
Here’s a possible diagram for the second version:
1-xxxxxxxxa
2-xxxxxxxxa
3-xxxxbxxxxx
4-xxxbxxxxa
Note: In this version, both “b” rhymes can slide around in their respective lines, which affords the poet a little extra freedom.
Here’s my example modified for the second version:
“Cheat,” by Robert Lee Brewer
The rumors you’ve heard are true: I run
to forget my past. What I have won,
I’ve lost in lonley moments, my sorrow
my only friend while others are stunned.
In this version, “run,” “won,” and “stunned” rhyme (okay, “stunned” is a slant rhyme), while “lonely” and “only” rhyme inside lines 3 and 4.
Please play around with the form this week, because it’ll be the focus of the next WD Poetic Form Challenge starting next week.
******
A big thanks to Robert Lee Brewer
Gwawdodyn, gwow-dód-in-heer (gwad = poem) is the 20th codified, Official Welsh Meter, an Awdl. It is a combination of a cyhydded naw ban couplet followed by either a toddaid or cyhydedd hir couplet.The Gwawdodyn is:
  • is stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains made up of a Cyhydedd Naw Ban couplet followed by either a Toddaid or Cyhydedd Hir.
  • syllabic, L1,L2,L4 are 9 syllable lines and L3 is a 10 syllable line.
  • when written with a cyhydedd hir couplet the stanza is
    • rhymed aaba, with L3 internal rhyme and L4 cross rhymed b.
  • when written with a Toddaid
    • mono-rhymed.
    • composed with gair cyrch following the main rhyme and caesura of L3. The gair cyrch end rhyme is echoed in the first half of L4 in secondary rhyme, assonance or consonance.
x x x x x x x x a
x x x x x x x x a
x x x x b x x x x b
x x x x b x x x a
x x x x x x x x c
x x x x x x x x c
x x x x d x x x x d
x x x x d x x x a
with Toddaid
x x x x x x x x a
x x x x x x x x a
x x x x x x x b – x c
x x x x c x x x b
x x x x x x x x d
x x x x x x x x d
x x x x x x x e – x f
x x x x f x x x e
House of Stone Turns to Sand by Judi Van Gorder
Ballots stolen, voters turned away,
but dead men will vote twice on the day.
No new fields to plow, there is no work now,
no sweat on the brow, no one to care?
Mugabe builds his army of boys
they now shoulder guns instead of toys
He took back white-farms without care – the fields
without yields leave black cupboards bare.
Sick mother has no milk for baby,
a crocodile barks in the belly.
Mother is dying, baby is crying
no one defying, no one will dare.
(Zimbabwe is Shona for house of stone)This poem uses Cyhydedd Hir end couplets in stanza 1 & 3 and Toddaid end couplet in stanza 2. I couldn’t resist creating a main rhyme in stanza 2 that was also a linking rhyme between all stanzas.
A big thanks to Judi Van Gorder
Gwawdodyn Hir
Type:
Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic
Description:
(gwow DOD in heer) A syllabic form that can go in two ways. Either way it consists of a syllabic sestet where all lines except the fifth are nine syllables and monorhymed. The fifth line is ten syllables and has a separate rhyme that may be internal (fifth and tenth syllable) or cross-rhymed with the sixth line (seventh through the ninth syllable of fifth line cross-rhymes with third through the fifth in sixth line).
Origin:
Welsh
Schematic:
xxxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxxa
xxxxbxxxxb
xxxxxxxxa
or
xxxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxxa
xxxxxxbxxx  (Syllable 7 to 9)
Rhythm/Stanza Length:
A Big thanks to Bob Newman
My Example
Uninvited      (Gwadodyn
My girl gone- my love unrequited
left me lonely and not delighted.
I gave girl next door transport from the store,
that and nothing more! How short-sighted.
You’d think perhaps I’d been benighted
I did not know what I’d ignited
That gal didn’t knock; my door wasn’t locked
from sleep I was shocked yet excited.
That she was nude was now high-lighted
by her chills that I soon had righted.
That she had applied could not be denied,
but midnight rides must be invited.
© Lawrencealot – December 25, 2013

Related Welch form at HERE.

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Romantic Stanza

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Stanzaic:   Any number of quatrains.
Syllabic:    Multiple versions. I have seen 11/11/10/7, but documented here are:
                 the Wordsworth version: 11/11/11/7, and the 11/10/11/7 version.
Meter:     Dactylic, with the final foot being either catalectic or brachycatalectic
                (lacking either one or two syllables).  
Rhyme:    cross rhyme, end-rhyme abab.
Refrain:   The first 7 syllable of line one making up line 4.
Romantic stanza
Type:
Structure, Metrical Requirement, Repetitive Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic
Description:
Alternating quatrains of basically dactylic meter where lines one and three have eleven syllables, line two has ten, and line four is the first seven syllables of line one.
Attributed to:
Maksim Bahdanovic, stanza so named by Bob Newman
Origin:
Belarus
Schematic:
Rhyme: (Ba)baB
Meter:
Xxx Xxx Xxx Xx
Xxx Xxx Xxx X
Xxx Xxx Xxx Xx
Xxx Xxx X
Starting Point:
With each quatrain, start with the first/last line, since that line establishes your rhymes.
Maksim Bahdanovič (1891-1917) was the greatest lyric poet in the Belarusian language, and one of his best-loved poems is entitled simply Romance. It begins, “Venus, new-risen above us appearing…” The verse form it uses is unusual and quite tricky. There is no standard name for it, so I have chosen to call it the romantic stanza. As an example, here is an alternative version of a well-known poem by Wordsworth: Daffodils
The form was named Romantic Stanza by Bob Newman
 
Example PoemsOut Genesis
Clustering, combining dust aggregates in time
Assembling Hydrogen particles as they must
be a bit weightier so they may start their climb.
Clustering, combining dust.
Billions of our years go by with no life at all.
Galaxies born, made of stars that explode and die.
Pressures of their dying create life’s wherewithal.
Billions of our years go by.
Busting outward from that blast, heavy elements
driven here by cosmic winds let know life commence.
all living things spring from cataclysmic events
bursting outward from that blast.
© Lawrencealot – January 26, 2013
unpublished
Since the specifications contain so much variance, I did the above in formal Dactylic tetramter, and the following in the indicated 11/10/11/7 format.
Neither are exactly the pattern used by the creator’s famous poem.
Our Genesis   (Romantic Stanza – 11/10/11/7 Version)
Clustering, combining dust aggregating
assembling Hydrogen just as it must.
Assembling atoms, Helium’s a-making,
Clustering, combining dust.
Billions of our years gone by with life absent.
Galaxies born, made from stars as they die.
Pressures of their dying create content .
Billions of our years gone by.
Busting outward from that blast, all elements
required for biologic life at last.
All living things sprung from stars’ final events,
bursting outward from that blast.
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15-10 Alternating Poetry Form

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A poem where 15 syllable stanzas which begin with an anapest foot and having couplet rhyme

alternate with 10 syllable iambic stanzas with cross rhyme.

Rhyme Pattern: aabb cdcd

(aabbccdd), 16 lines or more, alternating line length

 

I first saw this used by Jeff Green but have no idea if is already a name form.

 

Example Poem

Constitutional Deficiency

 A democracy cannot endure when gimme people learn
that they can persuade their reps to confiscate what others earn.
This was first proclaimed by Tytler, then Alexis de Tocqueville
The right to direct one’s earnings is in fact what makes one free.

My liberal friends think as I once did,
that government should cure whatever’s wrong.
I recognized my error as a kid.
Someone must pay the piper for his song.

 We’ve had only one elected man at top who truly tried
to impede the juggernaught we’ve wrought but could not hold the tide.
To defend our nation, use its strength to minimize abuse
are enough, but power wants more growth and leaps to find excuse.

The Tytle Cycle must run its full course.
Our try died not from faulty prior design.
We’ll work for masters like the noble horse.
The blame my friends is really yours and mine.

© Lawrencealot – Feb. 7, 2013

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Rannaigheacht bheag (ran-á-yah voig)

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A traditional Irish quatrain of 7-syllable lines [7/7/7/7] (‘old-school’),
 or 8/6/8/6, ending in 2-syllable words all linked by consonance
(in its old meaning, ‘having the same vowels’),
 with at least two cross-rimes in each couplet
 (can be consonance in first but should be rime in second)
and alliteration in every line, which in the second couplet
 must be between the last two stressed words in each line,
and with the dunedh, of course (ending in the same word, phrase,
 or line it began with).
Poem ExampleRon-a’yach Rhyme
Writing rhyming words, giving
living lines, fit for fighting
biting boredom while living
in style with witty writing.
(c) Lawrencealot – May 16,2012
Visual Template
As with the other Irish forms, a template can show you the syllable count and a bit more, but cannot be definitive as so much variation is possible while meeting the formal  requirements.
In the example below some words not hi-lighted could have been as serving one or more rules.

Rionnaird tri-nard (RUN-ard tree-nard)

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Rionnaird tri-nard (RUN-ard tree-nard), traditional Irish quatrain
form with 6-syllable lines ending in 2-syllable words,
L2 and L4 riming and L3 in consonance thereto (meaning in this case,
I gather, vowel-agreement rather than consonant-agreement,
having at one time meant the same thing as assonance),
alliteration in every line (ideally between the end-word and the
preceding stressed word), two cross-rimes in the 2nd couplet,
and the 1st stressed word of L2 alliterating with the last syllable of L1.
 Being Irish, it requires the dunedh, to end where it began
(first word, phrase, or line repeated in closing).
Example Poem
Promise
 
Inviting just by sight,
almost tinsel trapping,
stilletoed toes tripping,
in her sheer hose wrapping.
She’s surely sensuous;
Suggests sex is waiting,
waits while will is wilting.
Still fates are Inviting.
 
(c) Lawrencealot – May 17, 2012
 
 
Visual Template
I see here now that I have failed, if indeed every line
is to end in two-syllable words.  Ah well, close.