Cynghanedd

Cynghanedd groes

In cynghanedd groes ("cross-harmony") all the consonants in the first half of the line are repeated in the second half in the same order. The same consonants which immediately precede and immediately follow the main stressed vowel in the first half must do the same in the second half. However, the word-final consonants of each half of the line must be different, as must the main stressed vowel of each half.

There are three main different types, called cynghanedd gytbwys acennog ["balanced, accented"], cynghanedd gytbwys diacen ["balanced, unaccented"], and cynghanedd anghytbys diacen ["unbalanced, unaccented"] respectively:^[3]

Type 1 The simplest kind of cynghanedd groes is a line where both halves of the line end in a stressed monosyllable. In this kind the consonants are repeated only up as far as the stressed vowel, but not after it. The line may be divided 3 syllables + 4, or 4 syllables + 3. Both the examples below are taken from Dafydd ap Gwilym (14th century):

Agwrdd drwst / a gerdda draw ["A mighty commotion which passes yonder"]

Lawlaw â mi / lili mor ["Nearby me, lily of the sea"]

Type 2 In a second type, both halves of the line end in a polysyllable. Here the consonants both before and after the stressed vowel are repeated, but the consonants at the end of each half must not match. Again, the line may be divided 3 + 4, or 4 + 3:

Hwylbrenwyllt / heli bronwyn ["The wild-masted, white-breasted sea"]

Llywiwr iawngamp / llariangerdd ["Excellent ruler of gentle verse"]

However, this type with a polysyllabic stressed word in each half is rare.

Type 3 In the third type of cynghanedd groes the first half-line ends in a monosyllable, and the second half in a polysyllable. (The reverse, namely polysyllable + monosyllable, is not found in cynghanedd groes.) Here the division must be 3 syllables + 4.^[4] Any consonants immediately following the stressed vowel are repeated in both halves. An example is this line by Dafydd ap Gwilym from his poem The Seagull, which repeats the seven consonants {D R N F L H [stress] L}:

Darn fal haul / dyrnfol heli ["Like a piece of sun, a gauntlet of sea"]

In cynghanedd groes there are generally no consonants in the second half of the line which are not part of the consonantal echoing; but there are exceptions, especially in the case of ⟨n⟩ at the beginning of the half and, as mentioned above, a line-final consonant. The consonants ⟨h, w, y⟩ can also optionally be ignored. Vowels other than those under the main stresses may be of any kind.

Sometimes a consonant which comes twice in succession in one half of the line corresponds to a single consonant in the other half, as in this line by Dafydd ap Gwilym, where the two ⟨r⟩s in the first half correspond to a single ⟨r⟩ in the second half, creating the pattern {G R(R) S [stress]}:

Gŵr eres wyd / garw ei sain ["You are a strange man, with a harsh voice"]

In the following, by Siôn Phylip (16th century), two ⟨r⟩s in the second half correspond to one in the first, creating the pattern {C R(R) D [stress] Ch}:

Crïwyd u'wch / caer Rhydychen ["There was weeping above the wall of Oxford"]

Lines such as the following, by Lewys Glyn Cothi (15th century), are considered less correct since although the same consonants are used in both halves, they are arranged differently around the stressed vowels:^[4]

Mair o awgrym / yw Marg'red ["Margaret's name suggests Mary"]

Sometimes a consonant (or consonants) in the first half of a line can be reused to complete the consonant pattern in the second half, as in the following line by R. Williams Parry, where the ⟨m⟩ of mi is used twice to create the pattern {M L S M [stress]}:^[4]

Melys i mi / lais y mor ["Sweet to me is the voice of the sea"]

This type is known as cynghanedd groes o gyswllt. Another example is the following from Dafydd ap Gwilym's Seagull (although it also may be accounted for by the rule that an initial ⟨n⟩ may be ignored):

Na Thaliesin / ei thlysach ["Nor did Taliesin (ever love) one more fair"]

In the following line by Dafydd ap Gwilym the consonants of -fudd in the first half are borrowed to complete the pattern {F Dd F [stress] RF} in the second. The initial ch- is not ignored since it is matched in the second line of the couplet, which begins A chyffro:

A chof fydd Forfudd / f'eurferch ["And I will remember Morfudd my golden girl"]

In cynghanedd the pronunciation takes precedence over the spelling. Thus ⟨b+h⟩ corresponds to {P}, ⟨d+h⟩ or ⟨d+d⟩ corresponds to {T} and so on.^[5] For example, in the following line by Ieuan Deulwyn (15th century), ⟨b+h⟩ corresponds to {P}:

Heb hiraeth / – hi a'i peris ["Without longing – it is she who caused it"]

In this line of Lewis Glyn Cothi (16th century), ⟨d+d⟩ corresponds to {T}:

Achau y tad, / o chaid dydd ["The ancestry of the father, if one had a day (to hear it)"]

Cynghanedd draws

Cynghanedd draws (partial "cross-harmony") (literally, "traversing cynghanedd")^[6] resembles cynghanedd groes, except that there are consonants at the beginning of the second half of the line which are not present in the series of 'echoed' consonants. Cynghanedd draws appears in this line from R. Williams Parry:

Rhowch wedd wen / dan orchudd iâ ["Place a white face under a veil of ice"]

Here the consonant sequence {Rh Ch Dd [stress]} is repeated with different stressed vowels (short ⟨e⟩ and long ⟨â⟩). The ⟨n⟩ at the end of the first half plays no part in the cynghanedd: the line-final word iâ instead ends in a vowel; if this word also ended in an ⟨n⟩, there would be generic rhyme between the two words, which is not permitted in cynghanedd.

The {D N} of the word dan is also not part of the cynghanedd: this is the difference between cynghanedd groes and cynghanedd draws.

As with cynghanedd groes, both halves may end in a polysyllable, in which case the consonants are echoed both before and after the stress, provided the very last consonant is different, as in this line of Dafydd ap Gwilym in praise of the month of May:

Cennad / nawugain cynnadl ["Messenger of ninescore trysts"]

There may be any number of unmatched consonants in the central part of the line, as long as the initial sequence of consonants and accent is repeated. An extreme possibility is the following line of Dafydd ap Gwilym's The Girls of Llanbadarn, where only one syllable is involved:

Pla / ar holl ferched y plwyf! ["A plague on all the girls of the parish!"]

As noted above, the pronunciation takes precedence over spelling. In the following line from Dafydd ap Gwilym, ⟨ph⟩ corresponds to ⟨ff⟩, and ⟨d+t⟩ corresponds to ⟨d+d⟩:

A'i phryd teg / yn lle'r ffrwd dau. ["And her fair form in place of your flood"]

In early poetry, ac "and" and nac "nor" were always pronounced with /g/,^[7] so these lines from Dafydd ap Gwilym have the consonant patterns {G [stress] D} and {G [stress] N}:

Ac adar / aml ar goedydd ["And many birds on trees"]

Nac unnos / o Forgannwg ["Nor (will I go) a single night from Glamorgan"]

Occasionally cynghanedd draws can spread over two lines, as in the couplet below from Dafydd ap Gwilym, addressed to the River Dyfi, where the pattern {M Ll [stress] Dd} is repeated in the first part of the second line. In addition the first line has a shortened cynghanedd lusg and the second has cynghanedd sain:

Ni' m lladdo / rhyfel / gelyn ["An enemy's war will not slay me"]
O' m lluddiud / i dud / y dyn ["If you prevent me from (reaching) that girl's land"]

Cynghanedd sain

Cynghanedd sain ("sound-harmony") is characterised by both internal rhyme and consonant-matching. If the line is divided into three sections by its two caesuras, the first and second sections rhyme, and the third section repeats the consonantal patterns of the second. For example in the first line of Dafydd ap Gwilym's poem Yr Gwynt ("The Wind"):

Yr wybrwynt / helynt / hylaw ["O wind of the sky, whose course is free"]

Occasionally, the rhyme can cover two syllables:

Caredig / urddedig / ddadl ["Affectionate dignified conversation"]

At the beginning or in the middle of the second section there can be consonants not matched in the third, provided there is at least one alliterating consonant, as in these lines by Dafydd ap Gwilym:

Fis Mai / yn dwyn lifrai / las ["The month of May wearing green livery"]

Cyfeilles, / marchoges / môr ["Companion, horsewoman of the sea"]

As can be seen from the above examples, it is quite common for the second and third parts of the line to end with a polysyllable and monosyllable respectively, which does not occur when cynghanedd groes or cynghanedd draws extends over a whole line.

Occasionally there is consonant echoing between the first and second parts, as well as between the second and third, as in this line by Dafydd ap Gwilym:

Digrif fydd, / mau grefydd / grill! ["Pleasant it will be – birdsong is my worship! –"]

As with cynghanedd groes, a consonant can be borrowed from the second part of the line to make up the pattern of consonants in the third part. So in this line by Dafydd ap Gwilym, the consonant pattern {F [stress] N} in part 3 is made using the {F} from the end of part two:

Oni chaf / fwynaf / annerch ["If I do not receive a most gentle greeting"]

Similarly in the following line, also from Dafydd, the consonant pattern {L [stress] Dd} is made twice each time using the last letter of the previous section:

Gwae ni, hil / eiddil / Addaf ["Woe to us, feeble race of Adam"]

In the commonly used cywydd metre there is a requirement that one of the two lines of couplet must end in a monosyllable and the other in a polysyllable, so that a stressed rhyming syllable is balanced with an unstressed one. However, this rule does not apply to internal rhymes in cynghanedd sain, which can be stressed or unstressed at will.

Cynghanedd lusg

In cynghanedd lusg ("drag-harmony") the final syllable before the caesura in the first half of the line makes full rhyme with the penultimate syllable of the line-final polysyllabic word (i.e. the main stressed syllable of the second half). Usually no consonant-matching is involved. An example is this line by Dafydd ap Gwilym addressed to the wind:

A buaned / y rhedy ["And how swiftly it is that you run"]

The first rhyme can also be in a monosyllable:

A dwyn sôn / mewn afonydd ["And bringing noise in rivers"]

Occasionally it is possible for cynghanedd lusg and cynghanedd groes to be combined in the same line, as in this example from the 15th-century poet Dafydd Nanmor, which combines the rhyme -yr ... -yr with the echoed consonants {L Th [stress] R}:

Lwyth eryr / o lythyrau ["An eagle-load of letters"]^[8]

Cynghanedd lusg is less common than the other three types of cynghanedd.