A blethyrag, also known as the "Imploding form" is an old Celtic love hymn (though later poets tended to focus often on war) which originated among the early Cantiaci in Southern Britain in the 12th century BCE. While little is known of the origins of these poems, we do know that by the time of Julius Caesar, this form was popular throughout the Celtic world, from the British Isles, across Gaul, and even reaching into the Balkans and North-Eastern Spain. A modern music group, Balkan Beat Box, had used the blethyrag form in their songs which are poems sung in languages on the Balkans. The form was only briefly popular in Northern Italy, which was quickly subjugated my the Roman Republic

Form structure

The blethyrag most commonly consisted of two eight-line sections, each with three stanzas, usually divided into two tercets (three-lined stanzas) and a couplet (two-lined stanza) which was often placed in the center, but sometimes at the end. The second section would be a mirror of the first, using the first or last words of each line from section one, in reverse order, to start the lines in section three.

for example:

1.../<br />
2.../<br />
3.../<br />

4.../<br />
5.../<br />

6.../<br />
7.../<br />
8.../<br />

would become:

8.../<br />
7.../<br />
6.../<br />

5.../<br />
4.../<br />

3.../<br />
2.../<br />
1.../<br />

The second section would also traditionally retell the first section from a new perspective, or convey the same or a contrasting emotion. The rules for the relationship between the two varied often, but the writers of Blethyrags have almost always maintained some parallels between the two parts. An example of this is that writer, Dr. Kenneth Bredmond, once authored a poem entitled 'Jesus, My Life' Love'. In said poem, Bredmond write first in the voice of Mary Magdeline, and then in the voice of Judas. The poem has won the award for best Blethyrag in Poetry Soul monthly, and had held the Fussiner Award for two years running, as of 2005.

Famous examples

Perhaps the most notable Blethyrag poet was Dumnorix III (not to be confused with Dumnorix), a scribe who followed the Averni King Vercingetorix's army in a war against the Romans, and immortalized the valiant struggle of the Gallic People in his poem "The Battle of Gergovia." Of course, the Blethyrag was only a small footnote in his larger work desrcribing the entire war against Caesar in greater detail. This poem gained fame because scholars today deem it the most emotionally potent of all Dumnorix III's work. Unfortunately, much of the aesthetic value is believed to be lost in the translation because word meanings don't quite match up in the English. The carefully calibrated sound and meter are also lost.