of Alverton, also in rhyming triplets. The curious little song, which is all that remains of Jenkins's poetry, seems to show indications of a feeling for internal rhymes and something like a rudimentary Cynghanedd, but there is not enough of it to reduce to any definite rules. Even in Boson's verses and in those of Gwavas and Tonkin of St. Just (not the historian), in the Gwavas MS., the old system of counting syllables and taking very little account of the stress accents of words, is occasionally found, but generally in the later verse the extra unaccented syllables freely introduced show that a sense of accent and beats of rhythm had come in.
Specimens of Cornish Verse
I. Five- (or four) syllabled lines, with occasional six-syllabled, rhyming A A B C C B. From the fragment on the back of Additional Charter 19,491 in the British Museum, late fourteenth century.
| Golsow ty coivedh, | (5) | Hearken, thou comrade, |
| Byth na borth medh, | (4) | Never be ashamed, |
| Dyyskyn ha powes | (6) | Alight and rest |
| Ha dhymo dus nes. | (5) | And to me come near. |
| Mar codhes dhe les; | (5) | If thou knowest thy advantage; |
| Ha dhys y rof mowes, | (6) | And to thee I will give a girl, |
| Ha fest unan dek | (5) | And truly a fair one |
| Genes war a plek. | (5) | To thee if she is pleasing. |
| Ha tanha y; | (4) | Go take her now; |
| Kemmerr y dhoth wrek, | (5) | Take her to thy wife, |
| Sconye dhys ny vek | (5) | Refuse thee she will not |
| Ha ty a vydh hy. | (5)[1] | And thou shalt have her. |
- ↑ The numerals denote the number of syllables to each line. In the original a long z is used for dh and th.
