Englyn Milwr: Poetic Forms
Poetic Form Fridays are made to share various poetic forms. This week, we look at the englyn milwr, a Welsh tercet form.
For this week's poetic form, we're examining another version of the englyn, which is usually a tercet (three-line stanza) or quatrain (four-line stanza) form. The englyn milwr (pronounced mee-loor) is a tercet version with relatively straightforward rules for a Welsh form.
Here are the guidelines for the englyn milwr:
- Poem comprised of tercets
- Each line has seven syllables
- All lines within each tercet end rhyme
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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).
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Here's my attempt at an Englyn Milwr poem:
"monsters," by Robert Lee Brewer
every vampire fears a stake
through the heart and how days break
with the sun making them bake
to a crisp and werewolves get
more than a little upset
when faced with silver bullets
however that's not the worst
because the mummy comes first
because the mummy is cursed
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.
