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"May", "May Month" or "The Month of May", known in Welsh as "Mis Mai",
Parry "Oxford"
Poetic craft
[edit]"May" displays an impressive command of verse technique. The second line of each rhyming couplet ends with the word Mai, thus maintaining a monorhyme through the entire 52-line poem.[1] This feat is paralleled in only one other poem by Dafydd,[2] though the Welsh court poets of a slightly earlier date used monorhyme in their awdlau.[3] The metrical rules of the cywydd form demand that the final -ai syllable of the rhyme-word be unstressed, the consequence of which is that in almost every case this word is a verb in the imperfect tense, giving the poem, according to one critic, "a sense of reflection and longing".[4] Dafydd further restricts his choices by starting each of the first eight lines with the letter D, yet the difficulties he sets himself result in no strain in the expression of his thoughts.[1]
Thomas "Sydd" pp. 53-54 (below): "The most impressive thing in the quote is that there is one rhyme, -ai, in it, and that the word "Mai" is in the second line of each couplet. This is true for the entire poem. That's what a real feat of tongue poetry is. The second impressive thing is that Dafydd has maintained a literal character in the first eight lines - he starts each of the eight lines with D. But, having chosen to sing a poem with such extreme demands, what it is clear that there is no strain in her to express thought and feeling. Furthermore, there is a purposeful play on the ambiguity of the word "mwyn" in the poem: it means "gentle", and means "wealth". Linked to the idea of "wealth" is generosity and, specifically, the generosity of Mai, who is presented as a young lord sharing his gifts. Linked, again, to wealth, is the image of the leaves of the trees as "floringods" or coins, coins with the picture of a lily/ - "fleur-de-lis" (fleur-de-lis) - on them. But it was the practice of the gaff of the Middle Ages, like gaff in other times, to chip or "clip" pieces of metal from these pieces, in order to melt them and probably make brass from that. But May's florals are intact, nobody has clipped them, and so they don't disappoint anyone as they are at their full value. The New Edition of Dafydd's work reads "Bath yw i mi" instead of "Beth yw i mi" [TP] in the last line of the quote. This is the same word as in "bath money", and this is a completely appropriate word in this particular poem where there is so much talk about wealth."
Characteristically, he uses the borrowed word fflwring "to give the shock and surprise of the unexpected". Bromwich "Selected" p. xix
Use of ambiguity. Bromwich "Selected" pp. 18-19, https://dafyddapgwilym.net/AnaServer?dafydd+74672+printNotes.anv+poem=32%20-%20Mis%20Mai
"language that echoes traditional praise of a chieftain". Ford p. 265
Themes
[edit]Ford p. 265
https://dafyddapgwilym.net/AnaServer?dafydd+74672+printNotes.anv+poem=32%20-%20Mis%20Mai
https://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/284/1/LSE1989_pp87-98_Knight_article.pdf
Date
[edit]Bromwich "Selected" pp. 19-20
https://dafyddapgwilym.net/AnaServer?dafydd+74672+printNotes.anv+poem=32%20-%20Mis%20Mai, intro and note to line 13
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26383342?read-now=1&seq=8#page_scan_tab_contents p. 37
Manuscripts
[edit]https://dafyddapgwilym.net/AnaServer?dafydd+74175+printPoem.anv+poem=32%20-%20Mis%20Mai
https://dafyddapgwilym.net/cym/3win.php
Analogues
[edit]Poetry p. 46
Bromwich "Aspects" pp. 34, 83
Bromwich "Selected" p. 20
Thomas "Wrth" pp. 8, 10, 11, 16, 30, 32, 36, 48
Fulton pp. 168-169
Edwards pp. 81-82, 120, 155
https://dafyddapgwilym.net/AnaServer?dafydd+74175+printPoem.anv+poem=32%20-%20Mis%20Mai, intro and note to lines 9-10, 45, 51
Editions
[edit]- Williams
- Parry "Dafydd" pp. 267-268
- Parry "Oxford" pp. 58-60
- Johnston
Translations and paraphrases
[edit]- Bromwich "Selected" pp. 4, 6
- Clancy "Dafydd" pp. 111-112
- Ford pp. 265-267
- Gurney pp. 85-86
- Johnes p. 18
- Loomis pp. 89-90
- Loomis pp. 82-83
- Rhys p. 266
- Sims-Williams p. 541
- Thomas "Poems" pp. 51-52
- Watson pp. 153-154
Citations
[edit]References
[edit]- Thomas, Gwyn (2013). Dafydd ap Gwilym: Y Gŵr Sydd yn Ei Gerddi (in Welsh). Bala: Cyhoeddiadau Barddas. ISBN 9781906396572. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
External links
[edit]
Welsh Wikisource has original text related to this article: Mis Mai- English translation by Patrick Sims-Williams
- Abridged English translation by Arthur James Johnes
Category:May Category:Poems about nature Category:Poetry by Dafydd ap Gwilym