Cywydd
Quick answer: The cywydd is a Welsh verse form of seven-syllable rhyming couplets with cynghanedd, made famous by Dafydd ap Gwilym. Learn its rules and history.
The cywydd is a Welsh strict-metre verse form built from rhyming couplets of seven-syllable lines, with one elegant twist: in each couplet, one rhyme word must be stressed on its final syllable and the other unstressed, so the pair chimes without thudding. Every line also carries cynghanedd, the Welsh system of consonant harmony. The plural is cywyddau, and the full technical name of the standard variety is cywydd deuair hirion.
From the fourteenth century onward the cywydd was the workhorse of Welsh poetry, nimble enough for love poems, begging poems, satire and elegy. If the awdl is the tradition's ceremonial robe, the cywydd is its everyday coat, worn hard and worn brilliantly.
How It Works
Each line has exactly seven syllables. Lines pair into couplets sharing an end rhyme, and the stressed-unstressed rule means a word like 'remain' might rhyme with 'fountain': same sound, different weight, which keeps long poems from turning sing-song. An English sketch of the movement: 'The heron stands in the drain, / grey lawyer of the lost rain.' Here 'drain' ends stressed and 'rain' would need an unstressed ending in strict Welsh practice, which shows how exacting the real rule is; the sketch only catches the couplet's compact stride.
Where You Will See It
The cywydd's golden age begins with Dafydd ap Gwilym in the fourteenth century, whose cywyddau to women, birds and bad weather remain the most loved poems in the language; his poem to the seagull, asking the bird to carry a message to his beloved, is a fixture of Welsh anthologies. Masters such as Iolo Goch, Guto'r Glyn and Tudur Aled carried the form through the era of the wandering professional poets, and modern strict-metre writers still compose cywyddau for Eisteddfod competitions and public occasions.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
For English practice, keep three of the form's virtues: the seven-syllable line, the couplet rhyme, and above all the alternation of heavy and light line endings, which you can approximate by rhyming a monosyllable with the unstressed final syllable of a longer word, 'sea' with 'memory', 'goes' with 'shadows'. That single habit will refresh your couplets more than any other borrowing. Short-lined couplets also read quickly, so give the poem one clear errand, a message, a complaint, a blessing, in the medieval spirit.
What poets can take from this
- Hold every line to seven syllables and let the couplets do the organising.
- Rhyme stressed endings with unstressed ones, 'day' with 'yesterday', to catch the cywydd chime.
- Give the poem an errand, praise, request or complaint, as the medieval cywyddwyr did.
- Use enjambment across couplets sparingly; the form's charm is its neat stride.
- Read Dafydd ap Gwilym in translation to hear how playful strict form can be.
Try it yourself
In seven-syllable rhyming couplets, write a message poem asking an animal or a weather system to carry word to someone you cannot reach, rhyming a stressed ending with an unstressed one in at least three couplets.
Questions
How is cywydd pronounced?
Roughly KUH-with, with the final sound as the voiced th of 'smooth'. The plural, cywyddau, is roughly kuh-WITH-eye.
What is the difference between a cywydd and an englyn?
An englyn is a single self-contained stanza, usually four lines of fixed syllable counts on one rhyme. A cywydd is a whole poem of any length in seven-syllable couplets. Both require cynghanedd in every line.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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