Poetry Host: Lynn Einín O'Connacht

[lynnoconnacht]

Hello, everyone! I'm Lynn and I'll be your Poetry Host this week. I plan to share a poem Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I was going to tell you about how I didn't have a poem for today since I accepted rather impromptu today, but I managed to dig something of my own up for you, so I do actually have some poetry to share.

So! Introductions. I'm not actually good at these, but we'll see how it goes. As said, I'm Lynn. I'm an amateur writer and I occasionally delve into poetry. I used to write quite a lot of poetry, but nowadays I'm more of a short story writer who dabbles in the occasional haiku and/or englyn. (Artists doodle. I write haiku and englyn.) I recently wrote a free verse piece that I'm in the middle of revising. If you're interested, you can follow the process or help it along on my journal, but don't feel obliged to do either. ^_^

As it's been a few years since I wrote (and/or read) a lot of poetry, I'm all about rediscovering what I like and why I liked it. Or didn't as the case may be. I have a soft spot for the Romantics, as well as Robert Frost (whose name I cannot spell today, apparently), Emily Dickinson and W.B. Yeats. I also love sestina, though I can never remember the plural of that and, of course, haiku.

Poetry to me... has always been something that I just did. My mum and I used to play rhyming games and we used to make up our own guessing games (which, predictably) rhymed. One of the first poems I recall writing was a limerick. It was typed up in red ink with a real, old-fashioned typewriter. The first line ran something like "There once was a cat named Sylvester", but I don't remember the rest.

So... I guess poetry to me is a part of life, even when I'm not terribly actively engaged in it. I find it telling that one of the (few) childhood memories my leaky brain recalls is that poem, but that could just be coincidence. You never know.

That's a little bit about me. To sign off, have an englyn I wrote a few years ago! (It may not be very good, my apologies. Feel free to poke at it if you're so inclined. ^-^)



Single solitary songs
Sounding silent through the dawn.
Bird limb beating lingers
Long, longing, beneath liquid dawn.



* * *

If memory serves that's actually an englyn proest dalgron rather than just 'englyn'. There are many forms. The englyn proest dalgron consists of four lines of seven syllables each that half-rhyme with one another. (Note that mine doesn't actually do that last bit, so it's not a proper englyn proest dalgron.) Englyn are, in my experience and I admit I haven't tried written every form of poetry, some of the most difficult poems to write in English. (In retrospect, I feel it has too many ses. I like ses, but there is such a thing as oversaturation. (Oh, look! An s!)

Aaaand... that's all for today! Nice to meet you all and I'm looking forward to being your host this week!

Comments

[jjhunter]

Thank you again for taking this on last minute! I've never heard of englyn style poetry before--if you share more of them, might you include a bit of background about where they come from and how many variations there are? Your notes above suggest there's more than one type.

I like the alternating alliteration in the piece you shared. Here's a response; let me know if I've got the form down correctly.

Melodious memories
ripple measures through meadows
father's song filling son's song
singing cycles in meadows

[lynnoconnacht]

I'll try and dig up some more information than Wikipedia! There are certainly more forms for the englyn than this one, though, yes. ^-^ It's a Welsh (and Cornish, so Wikipedia informs me) poetic form, and it seems to be fairly unknown as a form. None of the books on poetry I have mention them. (Granted, I don't have many.)

I don't recall how I found out about them, but I was sold. They're wonderfully challenging. Some more so than others as they call for a very specific half-rhyme pattern to be used and... It's just very challenging because (like with haiku) the forms are so closely tied to the language. The englyn proest dalgron is the one I've found easiest to work with, so it's the one I have/had been trying to master before even trying to poke at other variations.

Oooooh, very pretty! I think you're making the same error as I made in mine, actually, which is that the last words of each line don't share a half-rhyme. (Memories and song do, though.) As I understand it, all four are supposed to share the half-rhyme. But other than that that's the general gist of the form, yes. ^-^ (I'm especially fond of your third line. It's so pretty and evocative!)

*rummages* Oh, look! I found a book on them! (And it has examples! A bit too long for me to read at present, unfortunately, but it looks to be a good reference. ^-^)

[untonuggan]

That's lovely! Thank you for sharing. I love the idea of "liquid dawn." It (almost) inspires me to try to get up early enough to enjoy it tomorrow. ^_^

[lynnoconnacht]

Awww, thank you. *blush* I'm afraid it's not the best example of an englyn proest dalgron because it doesn't conform to all the rules, but I'm glad people like it! ^-^

I'm glad to hear it inspired you! (Almost, anyway. ^_~) I hope you'll get to see and enjoy the sunrise, but getting enough sleep is important too. Morning has always been one of my favourite times of the day. So much life in it...

[untonuggan]

I've always had trouble sleeping, so getting to see the morning has usually meant not sleeping at all the night before and being bleary-eyed and grumpy at the awakening of the day. Lately I've been taking melatonin at the advice of my doctor, and it's helped tremendously at regulating my sleep. I think I'm currently catching up on a massive sleep debt. Hopefully I'll get up early enough to see the dawn one of these days.

Also, rules are meant to be broken. ^_^

[lynnoconnacht]

I'm glad to hear that the melatonin is helping you sleep! Hopefully whenever you do get up early enough to see the dawn, it'll be worth the seeing and there'll be no grumpiness! ^_^

Heh. When it comes to poetry and prose, I'm a firm believer of 'rules are meant to be broken once/when you know what you're doing'. ^-~

[alee_grrl]

Sorry I didn't get around to commenting on this the first time I read it. School occasionally eats my life and my brain. :)

I really like this little poem. I actually like the series of ses in the beginning, combined with the rhythm of the poem it reminds me strongly of early morning birdsong. The alternating alliteration is very nice.

I'm not familiar with this form, but it looks like fun. I'm going to have to look up more on it. :)

[lynnoconnacht]

That's all right! School does that to people. Anyway you got around to commenting on it now, right? And you've read it at least once, so that makes me a happy critter to know. <3

I love ses as a sound. I'm glad that it has such associations for you. <3 I don't think I even consciously tried to make it so much like bird song, so that's a wonderful thing to hear! Thank you for reading it!

Englyn of any kind are the hardest poems I've ever written. They're incredibly challenging (in English) because the form is so language-driven. I adore them and would love to see the form get more wide-spread, though. ^_^