Dafydd ap Gwilym, a Welsh master of…

Dafydd ap Gwilym, a Welsh master of poetic technique, is the first to exploit the “cywdd” form, consisting of rhyming couplets with seven-syllable lines and an uneven stress pattern.

A metrical innovator, generally regarded as the greatest Welsh poet of all time and among the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages, Dafydd embellishes most of his lines with a scheme of sound correspondences that feature shifting accents, alliteration, and internal rhyme.

Called the “cynghanedd,” Dafydd uses vivid imagery to employ this form in lyrics of romantic love and nature, directed to a non-aristocratic audience.

He dies around 1370 at about the age of sixty.