April is for A-z... And poetry...

is for Awdl 

The good thing about Welsh poetry forms is that they are a whole bunch easier to actually write than to pronounce. 

An Awdl is a Welsh ode with a complicated rhyme scheme of internal rhymes and alliteration called cynghanedd (I am not even attempting a whisper!)  There are some 24 variations, and I am trying one called Hir a Thoddaid. 

I have finally found one example of a rule that is easier done than said!  That’s a huge education in itself.

The rules are

·        10 syllable lines, can be any metre

·        6 line stanzas, any number, usually an ode is a long poem

·      All six lines must rhyme, lines 1-4 use end rhymes, line 5 uses the rhyme internally on the 7^th, 8^th or 9^th syllable, and introduces a new end word which then must rhyme internally with the last line.

Sounds insanely complex, but it’s easier to just jump in and try.  Here’s the one I wrote, with the end rhymes and internal rhymes in a different colours:

Awdl for you!

Butterflies and buds, bees and nightingales

winds of change, or from the West, even Wales

glorified body parts of slim females

some cute aspect of nature never fails

Me writing an awdl? My heart quails in fear

the rules are key, subjects just mere details.

What topic should I address in an ode?

Forget the whales, the seahorse and the toad

pots and urns have been done quite a la mode

there’s no point going down that well-trodden road.

Great words do not with time erode, and so

there’s no option but to go beyond Spode.

The thinking’s done, now this is what I state

my ode to ode itself I dedicate

I waited years, the Awdl is worth the wait

the sole scheme harder to articulate

than to act upon and illustrate the rhyme;

this likely my one and only time till date.

Awdls are easier to write than to explain

that one fact is a splendiferous gain

from childhood it’s been dinned into my brain -

that talk is cheap, action the tough terrain

rough diamond in the seam of plain black coal;

this reboots and corrects the whole again.

Awdl, I am totally in awe of you

though I can’t pronounce your name, not a clue

but we’ve come this far, we’re almost through (phew!)

You know what? you could safely say that too

of my name and it would be true no doubt.

But we’re much more than names we shout or spew.

Done.  Awdl for you.  Do you have any Welsh? if so, please tell me the pronunciation of cynghanedd, and for that matter awdl too.

Posted for the A-Z Challenge.