Klon (poetry)
The klon, also spelled glawn or gaun (, ; , ), is a Thai/Lao term referring to either poetic verse in general, or a specific prosodic form in Thai and Lao poetry. Thai. In the narrow meaning of the term, the "klon" is a more recently developed form of Thai poetry where a stanza has four "wak" (lines), each with the same number of syllables. It became the most popular form during the early Rattanakosin period, and is usually considered an original Thai form, as opposed to older forms such as "khlong" and "kap" which originated from Indic or Cambodian poetry . The "klon" metres are named by the number of syllables in a "wak", e.g. "klon hok" (, ) has six syllables per "wak" ("hok" means "six"). All metres have the same rhyming scheme, and there are also requirements on the tone of the final syllable of each "wak". The "klon" is also divided into several types according to their manner of composition, with "klon suphap" (, ) being the basic form. The following plan shows the structure of "klon suphap" (two stanzas) in the most common eight-syllable variety, which was employed extensively by Sunthorn Phu, and is the most common form of the  Rattanakosin period. The letters in parentheses represent alternative rhyming syllables. In practice, occasional "wak" with seven or nine syllables are also acceptable. Lao. In the Lao context, the "glawn" is commonly used in song, and is the most common text in traditional mor lam. It is made up of four-line stanzas, each with seven basic syllables (although sung "glawn" often includes extra, unstressed syllables). There is a set pattern for the tone marks to be used at various points in the stanza, plus rhyme schemes to hold the unit together. Performances of glawn are typically memorised rather than improvised