Englyn Penfyr

My entries:

Ghosts walk the dark streets; terror reins supreme.
Their eyes gleam; their chains
Clank through the dismal rains.

We would all agree, Halloween is fun--
Children run, so keen
In costumes to be seen.

It’s awful bloody hard to write these things.
My brain hurts to squeeze
Words into such a tease.
(In this one, I used consonance - the terminal "s")


The Englyn Penfyr ▼

The Englyn Penfyr consists of three lines and two rhymes (or a rhyme and a consonance).

The first line is 10 syllables (some references say in two groups of five) and contains both the A and B rhymes. The position of the A-rhyme in the first line can vary; it will be the seventh, eighth, or ninth syllable. The final (10th) syllable is always the B-rhyme. That is, where each asterisk and letter represents a syllable, the first line can be either of

* * * * * * A * * B
* * * * * * * A* B or
* * * * * * * * A B

The second line has five syllables:
* * B * A (In this line, the third syllable, B, is either rhyme or consonance with the last syllable of line one)

The third line has six syllables, the last of which is the A-rhyme.
* * * * * A

There are thus three acceptable forms for the poem:
* * * * * * A * * B
* * B * A
* * * * * A

* * * * * * * A * B
* * B * A
* * * * * A

* * * * * * * * A B
* * B * A
* * * * * A


Put in words:

The first line: 10 syllables, the 7th (or 8th or 9th) syllable is the A-rhyme of the poem, the last (10th) syllable is the B-rhyme (or consonance)

The second line: 5 syllables, the third syllable rhymes (or has consonance) with the last word of the first line and the fifth syllable rhymes with the A-rhyme syllable of the first line.

The third line: 6 syllables, the last syllable rhymes with the A-rhyme syllable of the first line.


Example:

Trees are losing their leaves, I feel so sad (10 syllables)
it feels bad, it’s real…(5 syllables)
I know, yes…time will heal. (6 syllables)
~ courtesy Bianca Boonstra

In the example, the 8th syllable is used as basis for the A-rhyme on the end of the second and third line. The last syllable of the first line rhymes on the third syllable of the second line. It is quite a puzzle, but when you have the “feeling of this structure” it will be a nice form. [The rhyme of so/know is probably coincidental and is not part of the form]