Cywydd Deuair Hirion: Poetic Forms
Poetic Form Fridays are made to share various poetic forms. This week, we look at the cywydd deuair hirion, which is a Welsh couplet form.
The cywydd deuair hirion is a Welsh poetic form with the following guidelines:
- Couplet (or two-line) poem or stanzas.
- Seven syllables per line.
- AA rhyme scheme in which one syllable is stressed, the other unstressed (order doesn't matter).
Note on couplet forms: It is not irregular for couplet forms to combine the couplets into even-numbered stanzas. So if you want to combine into quatrains (or four-line stanzas) or some other length, that's fine. But retain the seven syllables and stressed/unstressed rhyme scheme.
*****
Play with poetic forms!
Poetic forms are fun poetic games, and this digital guide collects more than 100 poetic forms, including more established poetic forms (like sestinas and sonnets) and newer invented forms (like golden shovels and fibs).
*****
Here’s my attempt at an cywydd deuair hirion:
Avec Toi, by Robert Lee Brewer
It's all I ever wanted
to be stuck inside my head
considering the best thing
to say at our own wedding
before family and friends
from beginning to the end.
Then you ask me, "Voulez-vous?"
and I say, "Only with you."
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
