Englyn Proest Gadwynog: Poetic Forms
Poetic Form Fridays are made to share various poetic forms. This week, we look at the englyn proest gadwynog, a Welsh quatrain form.
If you thought we were done looking at englyn forms, then you were wrong. The englyn proest gadwynog is another quatrain version of this Welsh poetic form.
Here are the guidelines for the englyn proest gadwynog:
- Poem comprised of quatrains
- Each line has seven syllables
- Lines one and three end rhyme with each other
- Lines two and four "pararhyme" or consonate with each other, as well as lines one and three (see the note after the example below)
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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 Proest Gadwynog poem:
"Anywhere Any Time," by Robert Lee Brewer
There's nowhere better to stare
than an airport terminal,
where nobody seems to care
if they're seen or overheard,
and nowhere's better to write--
both on time or running late,
both in the day and the night--
than anywhere any time.
(Note on the example: In the first stanza, all the end words had an "-xr" sound, and they all had a "t" sound in the second stanza.)
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.
