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G.M. Hopkins and Welsh Poetry



Gegebo



1

     From August 1874 to October 1877, G.M. Hopkins spent three years at St. Beuno's College in North Wales, to study theology. There he learned Welsh language [1] and read Welsh poetry, which influenced his poems very much from that time on. Meeting with Welsh poetry was one of the causes for him to break seven years' poetical silence since he joined Jesuits. Hopkins introduced in his English poems some arts of Welsh poetry, in which the most remarkable is cynghanedd [*]. Cynghanedd is found in medieval Welsh poems, and it is still used by modern Welsh poets. In this essay, we shall consider the relationship between cynghanedd and Hopkins's poetry. [2]

2

     Hopkins referred to cynghanedd in his letters to the friends. In the letter of April 1877 from Wales to Robert Bridges, Hopkins mentioned his own sonnets, and admitted that he was influenced by cynghanedd.
The chiming of consonants I got in part from the Welsh, which is very rich in sound and imagery. [3]
     In this letter he didn't call it by name, but the following letters show us that "the chiming of consonants" means cynghanedd.
     In 1878, one year after he had finished the course in Wales, in the letter to Richard Watson Dixon, Hopkins told the reason why The Month, Jesuit magazine, had refused to print his poem, "The Wreck of the Deutschland", as follows:
... and certain chimes suggested by the Welsh Poetry I had been reading (what they call cynghanedd) and a great many more oddness could not but dismay an editor's eye, ... [4]

     Again to Bridges, in 1882, he wrote about his sonnet "The Sea and the Skylark";

It was written in my Welsh days, in my salad days, when I was fascinated with cynghanedd or consonant-chime, ... [5]
     In the letter of 1886 to Coventry Patmore, Hopkins criticizes his contemporary poet, William Barnes:
However his [Barnes's] employment of the Welsh cynghanedd or chime I do not look on as quite successful. To tell the truth, I think I could do that better, and it is an artificial thing and much in his line. (I mean like Paladore and Polly dear, which is in my judgement more of a miss than a hit.) [6]
     Barnes's employment of cynghanedd, which Hopkins mentions here, is the repetition of consonants in the following lines of Barnes's poem, "Shaftesbury Feair". [7]
Vrom Paladore--Polly dear, (l. 25)
O' Paladore. Zoo, Polly dear, (l. 34)
The same consonants, [p, l, d, r / p, l, d, r], are repeated in the same order. (Underlines are added.)
     Hopkins adopted the English words "chime" or "chiming" for cynghanedd. He interpreted it as "consonant-chime", that is, musical sounds made by combinations of consonants, like series of sounds given by a set of attuned bells.

3

     Cynghanedd is the art made of repeated consonants, or of internal rhyme, or of combination of both of them. It is classified into the following four types.

1) CYNGHANEDD GROES

     All the consonants of the first half of the line are repeated in the second half of the same line in the same order. And no other consonants interrupt the series of repeated consonants.
Ex. [8]
A mi'n glaf er mwyn gloywferch,

Pick up all the consonants in the line.
          [m, n, g, l, f, r / m, n, g, l, f, r, (ch)] [9]
[ch] in the last syllable is to rhyme with the next line.

2) CYNGHANEDD DRAWS

     This type is made on the same principle as cynghanedd groes, but some consonants (or a consonant), which are not repeated, interrupt the repetition of consonants between the first and second part.
Ex.

A'r fwyalch deg ar fwlch dail--
Pick up only consonants.
          [r, f, l, ch, d / g / r, f, l, ch, d, (l)]
[g] in 'deg' is not repeated. ([l] in the last syllable is to rhyme with next line.)

3) CYNGHANEDD SAIN

     The line is divided into three parts; the last portions of the first two parts rhyme, and the second and third parts are linked by cynghanedd groes or draws.
Ex.

Ac egin gwin a gwenith
Divide the line into three parts like this:
          Ac egin / gwin / a gwenith
The first two parts rhyme by [-in], and the last two parts make cynghanedd groes by consonants [g, n].

4) CYNGHANEDD LUSG

     The penultimate syllable rhymes with a syllable anywhere earlier in the same line.
Ex.
Mewn llwyn yn prydu swyn serch,
Penultimate syllable, 'swyn' rhymes with second word, 'llwyn'.

4

     Hopkins attempted to take cynghanedd into English poetry. We shall trace how Hopkins, in his Welsh days, borrowed it, applied it, and accomplished it as his own art.
     First of all, we draw instances of cynghanedd made by Hopkins within the original rules. The following examples are drawn from "The Wreck of the Deutschland" (1875-76), the first work in Wales after breaking his poetical silence. To analyze phonetical arts, we extract in angle brackets ([ ]) the letters which take part in the arts; but in some places, suitable changes are made to show the identity or difference of the sound. [10]

1) CYNGHANEDD GROES

Of the Yore-flood, of the year's fall; (st. 32)
Consonants in the line are:
          [v, th, y, r, f, l, (d) / v, th, y, r, (s), f, l]
[d] of '-flood' and [s] of 'year's' in the line are irregulars (not repeated). (Consonants which are not repeated are parenthisized.) According to W.H. Gardner, no absolutely perfect example of cynghanedd groes was found in Hopkins's poems. [11] In this essay, consonant letters pronounced as parts of vowels, like [r] of 'yore' or 'year', are treated equally with pure consonants, if they participate in the arts of sound-repetitions.

2) CYNGHANEDD DRAWS

Warm-laid grave of a womb-life grey; (st. 7)
          [w, (r), m, l, (d), g, r / v, v / w, m, l, (f), g, r]
[r] and [d] of 'Warm-laid', and [f] of '-life' are irregulars.

3) CYNGHANEDD SAIN

The down-dugged ground-hugged grey (st. 26)
          [ ... -dugged / gr ... -hugged / gr ... ]

4) CYNGHANEDD LUSG

And frightful a nightfall folded rueful a day (st. 15)

Penultimate foot 'rueful a' rhymes with 'frightful a'.

5

     Hopkins wrote "Cywydd" in Welsh language. It is the Welsh version of his own English poem, "The Silver Jubilee". "Cywydd" is dated April 1876, one year and half after he came Wales, and soon after breaking his poetical silence, and the previous year of his "Bright Sonnets" (sonnets written in Wales). Cywydd is the name of metrical form of Welsh prosody; it consists of seven-syllabled lines in rhyming couplets, and all lines are written in cynghanedd. But in all the eighteen lines of Hopkins's "Cywydd", cynghanedd is correct only in the following three lines. [12]

Gwan ddwfr a ddwg, nis dwg don, (l. 7) [**]

          [... -wg / ... dwg / d ... ] (cynghanedd sain)

Ran drag'wyddawl o rinwedd; (l. 10)
          [r, n ... r, n ... ] (cynghanedd draws)
Croyw feddygiaeth, maeth crefydd; (l. 16)
           [c, r, f, dd ... c, r, f, dd][13] (cynghanedd draws)

6

     "The Woodlark" is one of the unfinished poems written in Wales. It is dated July 1876. It may be an attempt to make an imitation of cywydd in English, for it is written in rhyming couplets, mainly consists of seven-syllabled lines, and many lines are written in cynghanedd or "failed" cynghanedd. Four types of cynghanedd are found in it.

1) CYNGHANEDD GROES

The blood-gush blade-gash (l. 22) [14]

          [(th), b, l, d, g, sh / b, l, d, g, sh]
Only [th] in the head of the line is irregular.

2) CYNGHANEDD DRAWS

Foam-tuft fumitory. (l. 30)

          [f, m, t ... f, m, t ... ]

3) CYNGHANEDD SAIN

Teevo cheevo cheevio chee: (l. 1)
          [-eevo / cheevo / ch, v ...]
Dandy-hung dainty head. (l. 26)

          [-dy / h, d, -ty / h, d]

4) CYNGHANEDD LUSG

O where, what can that be? (l. 2)
Penultimate syllable 'that' rhymes with 'what'.
Tatter-tassel-tangled and dingle-a-dangled (l. 25)
Penultimate syllable '-tangl-' rhymes with '-dangl-'.
     In addition to the above, in the poem, there are many signs of the attempts to make sound-repetitions like cynghanedd. For example,
So tiny a trickle of song-strain; (l. 4)
Before or behind or far or at hand (l. 7)
and so forth. These "failed" cynghanedd groes or draws are made much more than regular cynghanedd; for it must be very difficult to make English verse in conformity with the rules of cynghanedd. It might be the reason why the poem was left unfinished that Hopkins couldn't overcome the difficulty. After "The Woodlark", he didn't attempt to write English poems in the Welsh metrical form; thereafter he adopted one of the traditional English verse forms, sonnet; and he interwove cynghanedd-like arts with his sonnets. And in these sonnets ("Bright Sonnets") he accomplished his style of his Welsh days.

7

      We can find many other examples of cynghanedd-like arts in Hopkins's poems. But his phonetical arts are not faithful reproductions of cynghanedd in English. Of course, they are not badly made imitations. They are made by his own method which are derived from original rules, though they preserve the "Welsh air". We shall consider below how cynghanedd was transfigured in Hopkins's poems, and how he managed to produce "Welsh air", taking "Bright Sonnets" as examples.
     In Welsh language, at first sight, consonant letters look too many in proportion to the vowel letters. But it is an optical illusion. [15] The ratio of consonants is higher in English than in Welsh; in consideration of the fact that English has many consonant clusters, and one English syllable can have even five or six consonants. In addition to that, in Hopkins's sonnets, ten or twelve, or even more syllables make a line, therefore his sonnet may have much more consonants in a line than Welsh poems. Consequently, it is too difficult to arrange all the consonants in the line in cynghanedd groes or draws. So he transfigured the rules of cynghanedd variously to be adapted for English phonology. Hopkins's transfigurations of cynghanedd are classified under following heads. (Hereinafter, Hopkins's "transfigured cynghanedd" is simply called "cynghanedd".)

(1) Permission of irregular consonants

     In a line of cynghanedd groes or draws, among the serial repetitions of consonants, impedimental consonants, which don't participate in the repetition, are permitted.
Ex.
Ah well! it is all a purchase, all is a prize.
           ("The Starlight Night", l. 8)

          [l, (t), s, (l), p, r ... l, s, p, r ... ]
The shocks. This piece-bright paling shuts the spouse ("The Starlight Night", l. 13) [(th), sh, (k), s, th, s, p ... sh, (t), s, th, s, p ... ]

(2) Permission of disorderly arrange of consonants

In a line of cynghanedd groes or draws, order of repeated consonants may be exchanged.
Ex.
Wind-beat white beam! ...
          ("The Starlight Night", l. 6)

          [w, (n, d), b, t / w, t, b ...]

In mould or mind or ...
          ("The Lantern out of doors", l. 6)

          [n, m, (l), d, r / m, n, d, r ...]

(3) Cynghanedd only in a part of a line

     Cynghanedd may be made only in a part of a line, not in the whole line. (Two examples of (2) are also the example of this head.)
Ex.

To man's last dust, drain fast towards man's first slime.
          ("The Sea and the Skylark", l. 14)

     Only three words in the line, ('last / dust, / drain') make cynghanedd sain.

A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
          ("Spring", l. 10)
Latter half of the line, 'being in the / beginning' [b, ng, n .../ b, (g), n, ng], makes cynghanedd-like consonant repetition.
     There are innumerable lines in which adjoining two words (or two phrases) are linked by cynghanedd groes or draws. And in the following line,
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?
          ("Hurrahing in Harvest", l. 4)
A set of consonants ([m, l, d]) is repeated three times, in 'Meal-drift', 'moulded', and 'melted'.

(4) cynghanedd spread over two lines

     Latter half of a line and first half of the next line are linked by cynghanedd groes or draws. (This is found also in Welsh poems.)
Ex.

     ... like on orchard boughs!
Look! March-bloom, ...
          ("The Starlight Night", ll. 10-11)
          [l, k, (n), r, ch, r, (d), b, (s) / l, k, (m), r, ch, b ... ]
     ... not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, ...
          ("God's Grandeur", ll. 4-5)

          [n, t, r, (k), h, s, r, d / (g), n, r, (sh), s, h, (v), t, r, d]

(5) Loosened cynghanedd lusg

     The original rule of cynghanedd lusg, (penultimate syllable and anywhere earlier syllable rhyme), is loosened, and two (or more) syllables of any places in a line may rhyme. That makes assonance or internal rhyme of English prosody; and that contributes toward producing "Welsh air".
Ex.
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--
          ("God's Grandeur", l. 12)
Three words in the line ('morning', 'brink', 'springs') are linked by internal rhyme of [-in-].
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
          ("God's Grandeur", l. 13)
Three words ('Holy', 'Ghost', 'over') are linked by assonance of 'o' [ou].

(6) Two or more cynghanedd in a line

     A line may have two or more sets of cynghanedd-like sound repeating patterns abreast.
Ex.

The bright boroughs, the circle-citadels there!
          ("The Starlight Night", l. 3)
In the first half of the line, 'bright boroughs' has the repetition of [b, r]; and in the second half of the line, 'circle-citadels' has the repetition of [c, l].
With, all down darkness wide, his wading light?
          ("The Lantern out of doors", l. 4)

     In the first half, 'down darkness', [d, n / d, n]; in the second half, 'wide, his wading' [w, d / w, d].
     Though we divide the arts under some heads for conveniences' sake, Hopkins's sound repeating art is not always classified under one of the heads; we should think that some of the items are often combined in a line.

(7) Superposed cynghanedd

     As an integration and development of all the arts which we mentioned above, Hopkins devised "superposed cynghanedd". "Superposed" means that two (or more) cynghanedd in a line overlap each other, in the same place, not abreast side by side. We shall draw some of the most characteristic lines of the "superposed" cynghanedd.
Ex.

Left hand, off land, I hear the lark ascend,
          ("The Sea and the Skylark", l. 5)
Only in the first half of the line, 'Left hand, off land', we can find a consonant-repetition of [l, f, n, d / f, l, n, d], and in addition to that, we can find another repetition of [h, l, n, d / h, l, n, d], extending over the whole line.
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
     ('As kingfishers catch fire, ...', l. 1)
Two sets of consonant-repetitions are found abreast in the line. The first half of the line has a repetition of [k, f, r / k, f, r], and the second half has that of [d, r, f, l / d, r, f, l]. And besides, another repetition extends over the whole line, linking the two halves: [n, g, f, s, f / g, n, f, s, f].
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
          ("God's Grandeur", l. 14)
Divide the line into three parts like the following;
          World broods with / warm breast and with / ah! bright wings.
Then, first two parts are linked by the repetition:
          [w, r, b, r, d, w, th / w, r, b, r, w, th];
and the last two parts are linked by the repetition:
          [b, r, t, n, w / b, r, t, w, n].
     This might be a transfiguration of cynghanedd sain.
     Sometimes a line is divided into many short parts, and those parts are linked each other by repeated sounds.
How ring right out our sordid turbid time,
          ("The Sea and the Skylark", l. 10)
In this line, 'ring' and 'right' are linked by [r], 'right' and 'out' are linked by [t], 'out' and 'our' are linked by the vowel [ou]. And the latter half of the line, 'sordid / turbid / time', which makes cynghanedd sain, is linked with the first half by [r, t]. In this manner, almost all the words in the line take part in the art of sound repetition. [16]

     Thus, sharing some sounds, two or more cynghanedd are superposed in a line. One cynghanedd may pick up the sound which another has dropped. Making verse lines, in his Welsh days, Hopkins must have chosen such words that make long "sound-chain", in which as many sounds in the line as possible participate. And this is the method of Hopkins to make "Welsh air" in English poetry.

NOTES

[1] Hopkins wrote in his "Journal" of 1874, September 6, a few days after he arrived at Wales, "I began to learn Welsh ..." cf. Humphry House & Graham Storey ed. The Journals and Papers of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Oxford UP, 1959), p. 258.

[2] For cynghanedd, see the following books;

Meic Stephens ed. The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales (Oxford UP, 1986, hereafter merely Oxford Companion), under the head of "cynghanedd".
Norman H. MacKenzie, A Reader's Guide to Gerard Manley Hopkins (London: Thames and Hudson, 1981, hereafter Reader's Guide), pp. 229-30.
W.H. Gardner, Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Study of Poetic Idiosyncrasy in Relation to Poetic Tradition, vol. ii, (Secker & Warburg, 1949, hereafter Study, ii), pp. 144-58.
Though cynghanedd has the plural form, cynganeddion, we don't say "two cynganeddion", but "two cynghanedd" in this essay.

[3] April 3. The Letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins to Robert Bridges, ed. Claude Colleer Abbott, (Oxford UP, 1935, hereafter LB.), p. 38.

[4] October 5. The Correspondence of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Richard Watson Dixon, ed. Claude Colleer Abbott (Oxford UP, 1935), p. 15.

[5] November 26. LB., p. 163.

[6] October 6. Further Letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins, 2nd edn, ed. Claude Colleer Abbott (Oxford UP, 1956), p. 371.

[7] William Barnes, Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, C. Kegan Paul, 1878, p. 427.

[8] All the four lines are drawn from "Cyngor y Biogen", by Dafydd ap Gwilym, Welsh poet of the fourteenth century (from The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse, ed. Thomas Parry, Oxford UP, 1962). Lines 1, 6, 23, and 2. Almost all the lines of this poem are written in one of the four types of cynghanedd.

[9] 'w' and 'y' are always pure vowels in Welsh grammar. For Welsh pronunciation, see T.J. Rhys Jones, Living Welsh, Hodder & Stoughton, 1977, pp. 17-24; and Oxford Companion, pp. xv-xvi. Welsh spelling is almost "phonetic".

[10] Among the four lines cited here, examples of cynghanedd groes, draws, and sain are cited as examples of cynghanedd in MacKenzie's Reader's Guide. The lines of Hopkins are quoted from The Poetical Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins, ed. Norman H. MacKenzie, Oxford UP, 1990 (hereafter Poetical Works).

[11] Gardner, Study, ii, p. 150.

[12] Poetical Works, p. 353.

[13] 'dd' represents one consonantal sound. It is treated as one letter in Welsh grammar. The same is said of 'ch', 'ff', 'ng', 'll', 'ph', 'rh', 'th'.

[14] There are some differences among the editions, because the poem is compiled by editors from the unfinished fragments.

[15] See notes [9] and [13].

[16] The most excellent example of this art is found in the first line of "The Leaden Echo and Golden Echo" (written in 1882).

How to keep--is there any any, is there none such, nowhere known some, bow or brooch or braid or brace, lace, latch or catch or key to keep

ADDITIONAL NOTES

[*] Pronounced as [Phonetic Alphabet] (OED, 2nd edn.).

[**] Correctly, "y" of "dyn" in this line has a circumflex accent (^).

Translated from original Japanese article, 「G.M.ホプキンズとウェールズ詩」 in 『早稲田大学大学院文学研究科紀要』 (Bulletin of the Graduate Division of Literature of Waseda University), Special Issue, No. 18, 1991.

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