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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Diolch yn fawr, beirdd!

Which means, "thank you, poets!"  I have enjoyed wrestling with Welsh formats.  I hope you have, too.  Your assignment this time is short and sweet.  Simply (or not so simply) assemble me an epic or long piece fit for a Bard, utilizing at least two of the forms we have used in our short trip into the Welsh mountains.

Those, you might recall, were the awdl gywydd, the cywydd llosgyrnog, and the toddaid. If you are feeling adventurous, you can also utilize a fourth style, the englyn milwr (a simple stanza of three seven syllable lines, all rhyming).

One very simple way to do this would be to write a few verses with one of the cywydds (awdl gywydd or cywydd llosgyrnog) and append a toddaid couplet, something like a volta in a strict sonnet, a change of thought or an abrupt stop. You could also use one of the forms as a lyrical base, with another format as a sort of chorus. The style is up to you, just be sure to use two or more of the forms presented here!

Thank you all so much for your hard work with these formats. Remember, there are twenty-four in all, so if you run across one you like later, let me know. Perhaps it will be a fun challenge at another time!

Please link up when you have a moment. I will return in four weeks with a new challenge! Feel free to email me or find me on Twitter if you have any suggestions for our next direction.

11 comments:

  1. Thanks for always extending us, Grace. This is quite a challenge (not for the faint of heart)!

    At least the link will remain open so we may come back later in the week to link up our efforts.

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  2. Um...could I make a wee request? Since there are a number of Toads, could people please say who they are, for those who don't know who does which feature? I know this is Grace because of Kerry's comment, but otherwise I wouldn't know who it was.

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  3. Fireblossom, the name of the poster appears under the Linky think where it says Imagined by...

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  4. Thanks Peter.. you beat me to it!

    Vowels will cost you Mama Zen, but since it was your B/day lately, you can select anyone you like as a freebie.. Haha.

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  5. I see Imagined by Grace at two a.m. That explains the prompt :-) I dont think even vowels will help me on this one, hee hee, but will enjoy reading all of your valiant efforts.

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  6. Hi all --
    I'm not home right now, am at the beautiful west coast visiting family and friends (on a friend's computer right now) so I might not be participating or even commenting for a couple of weeks unless I find a hot spot for my laptop.
    Cheers (I'd say it in Welsh if I could) --
    K

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  7. I believe in all of you. And I look forward to reading your responses. Think of it as a little re-run of the former challenges; don't be scared away by the word "epic". An epic tale can be told in few words. We know this because of Basho, Hemingway, Edna St. Vincent Millay...

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  8. cripes, i posted mine and THEN read pete's. (resisting the urge for truly epic cursing here)

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  9. Boo hoo.. everyone's way ahead of me! Perhaps a trip to the mountains today will loosen the block that has me in its grip. I'm just too stressed out at this time of year to think poetically.

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  10. mine may seem a bit truncated. didn't have much to say about the subject matter. hope it's ok.

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