Englyn Penfyr (pronounced "en-glin pen-vir")

Englyns are Welsh forms. There are a whole mess of different kinds. Most are in quatrain stanzas (four lines per stanza). They are all syllabic, which means there is not great emphasis on meter; it's more important to stick with the prescribed length of the line in syllables.

The englyn penfyr uses triplet stanzas with 10, 7, and 7 syllables in each line. This may remind some people of haiku, which is also a syllabic triplet form, but the penfyr has a few sonic twists. The ninth syllable in the first line of each stanza is rhymed with the ends of the next two lines. The last syllable in the first line is remembered in one of the first three syllables on line two by using assonance, alliteration, or consonance. Very tricky. Welsh forms sometimes don't quite make it when tried in English, but I think this one went well.