Englyn Penfyr: Poetic Forms
Poetic Form Fridays are made to share various poetic forms. This week, we look at the englyn penfyr, a Welsh tercet form.
For this week's poetic form, we're going to look at the englyn penfyr, a Welsh form. While many englyns are quatrain forms, this one based around the tercet.
Here are the guidelines for writing this one:
- Poem comprised of tercets (or three-line stanzas)
- The first line is 10 syllables long
- Lines two and three are seven syllables each
- Line one has a rhyme near the end (though not at the end) that end rhymes with lines two and three [I've indicated these in my example below in bold]
- The final syllables of line one are echoed in the beginning of line two [I've indicated these in my example below in italics]
- Poem can run on for several tercets or be as concise as three lines
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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 penfyr:
"Copper," by Robert Lee Brewer
In the summer, we rock chairs on the porch
in the scorching heat as hairs
glisten with sweat and we stare
off along the horizon where storm clouds
begin their loud approach from
west to east blocking the sun
until we run indoors to avoid strikes
of lightning though likely soon
we'll smell that summer scent true.
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.
