For Real Toads: Cyhydedd Hir

The River Wye, the 1816 road bridge,
and the castle at Chepstow, Wales.
The river forms the boundary between Monmouthshire, Wales (left) and Gloucestershire, England (right).
Wikipedia photo

Kerry’s challenge for the online writers’ group Imaginary Garden with Real Toads this weekend has been the Welsh poetry form Cyhydedd Hir (pronounced cu-hée-dedd heer).

Kerry says the basis of Cyhydedd Hir is a single line of 19 syllables, and two rhymes, set out as follows:

  

x x x x A x x x x A x x x x A x x x B

(where x is a single syllable)

   

"The final poem should consist of the basic 19-syllable variation repeated four times with new rhymes introduced within each section," she said. So I did it.

  

As you can see, I had a bit of fun with my 19-syllable lines. Kerry did say we don't have to use 19 syllables per line: we could write couplets, tercets or quatrains of 19 syllables, but I chose to use 19-syllable lines, forming 38-syllable couplets, with a twist. (I seldom do exactly as I'm told.)

    

    

VOCABULARY, a Cyhydedd Hir

by Kay L. Davies, August, 2012

    

equanimity, perspicacity, reciprocity, each a big word

parsimonious, multifarious, impecunious, big as a herd

  

matriculation, peregrination, corroboration, every word

satisfactory, propitiatory, conciliatory, wants to be heard

  

antithetical, preternatural, ecumenical, just for the sound

cornucopia, misanthropia, pre-utopia, going around

qualifications, congratulations, to all the nations, every one

contemporary, apothecary, fiduciary, now we are done