English Verse Part 53

Spring knocks at winter's frosty door: In boughs by wild March breezes swayed The bonnie bluebirds sing once more.

The brooks have burst their fetters h.o.a.r, And greet with noisy glee the glade; Spring knocks at winter's frosty door.

The swallow soon will northward soar, The rush uplift its gleaming blade, The bonnie bluebirds sing once more.

Soon sunny skies their gold will pour O'er meads that breezy maples shade; Spring knocks at winter's frosty door.

Along the reedy river's sh.o.r.e, Fleet fauns will frolic unafraid, The bonnie bluebirds sing once more.

And Love, the Love we lost of yore, Will come to twine the myrtle braid; Spring knocks at winter's frosty door, The bonnie bluebirds sing once more.

(CLINTON SCOLLARD: _Spring Knocks at Winter's Frosty Door._)

D.--THE TRIOLET

The triolet is really a diminutive form of the Rondeau, and was not originally distinguished by name. It consists of eight lines, with two rimes, lines 1 and 2 recurring as lines 7 and 8, and line 1 also as line 4. The rime-scheme is _ABaAabAB_. Here, as in the villanelle, a change of signification in the repeated lines is thought to add to the charm of the form.

A French specimen, from Ranchin, is cited by Mr. Gleeson White as being called by some "the king of triolets":

Le premier jour du mois de mai Fut le plus heureux de ma vie: Le beau dessein que je formai, Le premier jour du mois de mai!

Je vous vis et je vous aimai.

Si ce dessein vous plut, Sylvie, Le premier jour du mois de mai Fut le plus heureux de ma vie.

Easy is the Triolet, If you really learn to make it!

Once a neat refrain you get, Easy is the Triolet.

As you see!--I pay my debt With another rhyme. Deuce take it, Easy is the Triolet, If you really learn to make it!

(W. E. HENLEY.)

Rose kissed me to-day, Will she kiss me to-morrow?

Let it be as it may, Rose kissed me to-day.

But the pleasure gives way To a savor of sorrow;-- Rose kissed me to-day,-- _Will_ she kiss me to-morrow?

I intended an Ode, And it turned to a Sonnet.

It began _a la mode_, I intended an Ode; But Rose crossed the road In her latest new bonnet.

I intended an Ode, And it turned to a Sonnet.

(AUSTIN DOBSON: _Rose Leaves._)

In an earlier version of this last "rose-leaf" the ode is said to have "turned into triolets," when Rose crossed the road "with a bunch of fresh violets."

A little kiss when no one sees, Where is the impropriety?

How sweet amid the birds and bees A little kiss when no one sees!

Nor is it wrong, the world agrees, If taken with sobriety.

A little kiss when no one sees, Where is the impropriety?

(SAMUEL MINTURN PECK: _Under the Rose._)

Worldly designs, fears, hopes, farewell!

Farewell all earthly joys and cares!

On n.o.bler thoughts my soul shall dwell!

Worldly designs, fears, hopes, farewell!

At quiet, in my peaceful cell, I'll think on G.o.d, free from your snares; Worldly designs, fears, hopes, farewell!

Farewell all earthly joys and cares!

(PATRICK CAREY: in _Trivial Poems and Triolets_, 1651; reprinted by Scott, 1819; this triolet also quoted in _Ballades and Rondeaus_, Introduction, p. x.x.xvi.)

Originally, the triolet was often used for serious sentiment. The present and the following specimen are rare instances of its serious use in English.

In his arms thy silly lamb Lo! he gathers to his breast!

See, thou sadly bleating dam, See him lift thy silly lamb!

Hear it cry, "How blest I am!-- Here is love and love is rest."

In his arms thy silly lamb See him gather to his breast!

(GEORGE MACDONALD.)

E.--THE SESTINA

This form, although originally found in Provencal like the others of the group, has been more used in Italy than in France, and, as the English form of the word indicates, was introduced into England under Italian influence. It was invented at the end of the thirteenth century, by the troubadour Arnaut Daniel, celebrated in the following specimen. The common form of the sestina has six stanzas of six lines each, with a tercet at the end. There is usually no rime, but the stanzas are based on six end-words, which are the same in all stanzas; in the tercet three of these words are used in the middle of the lines, and three at the ends. The order of the end-words changes in each stanza according to a complex system: thus (in the common modern form) if the end-words of the first stanza be represented by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, the order in the second stanza will be 6, 1, 5, 2, 4, 3; in the third, 3, 6, 4, 1, 2, 5; in the fourth, 5, 3, 2, 6, 1, 4; in the fifth, 4, 5, 1, 3, 6, 2; in the sixth, 2, 4, 6, 5, 3, 1. Sometimes the end-words also rime by twos and threes.

In fair Provence, the land of lute and rose, Arnaut, great master of the lore of love, First wrought sestines to win his lady's heart; For she was deaf when simpler staves he sang, And for her sake he broke the bonds of rhyme, And in this subtler measure hid his woe.

"Harsh be my lines," cried Arnaut, "harsh the woe, My lady, that enthroned and cruel rose, Inflicts on him that made her live in rhyme!"

But through the metre spake the voice of Love, And like a wildwood nightingale he sang Who thought in crabbed lays to ease his heart.

It is not told if her untoward heart Was melted by her poet's lyric woe, Or if in vain so amorously he sang.

Perchance through crowd of dark conceits he rose To n.o.bler heights of philosophic love, And crowned his later years with sterner rhyme.

This thing alone we know: the triple rhyme Of him who bared his vast and pa.s.sionate heart To all the crossing flames of hate and love, Wears in the midst of all its storm and woe-- As some loud morn of March may bear a rose-- The impress of a song that Arnaut sang.

"Smith of his mother-tongue," the Frenchman sang Of Lancelot and of Galahad, the rhyme That beat so bloodlike at its core of rose, It stirred the sweet Francesca's gentle heart To take that kiss that brought her so much woe, And sealed in fire her martyrdom of love.

And Dante, full of her immortal love, Stayed his drear song, and softly, fondly sang As though his voice broke with that weight of woe; And to this day we think of Arnaut's rhyme, Whenever pity at the laboring heart On fair Francesca's memory drops the rose.

Ah! sovereign Love, forgive this weaker rhyme!

The men of old who sang were great at heart, Yet have we too known woe, and worn thy rose.

(EDMUND GOSSE: _Sestina._)

For a specimen of the rimed sestina, see Swinburne's _Poems and Ballads_, Second Series, p. 46.

The Virelai, which we have seen was one of the forms used by Chaucer, though not represented in his extant poetry, has been but slightly imitated in English. It was a poem of indeterminate length, composed of longer and shorter lines, the longer lines in each stanza riming, the shorter lines in the same stanza also riming, while in the succeeding stanza the short-line rime of the previous stanza became the long-line rime. The last stanza took the unrepeated rime of the first stanza as its new rime; so that in the whole poem each rime was used in two stanzas. Charles Cotton, one of whose rondeaus has been quoted, also wrote a virelai. A modern specimen, by Mr. John Payne, is quoted in _Ballades and Rondeaus_, p. 276.

The Pantoum is another very interesting form belonging in this group rather than elsewhere, although it originated not in France but Malaysia. It was imitated in French by Victor Hugo and other poets, and through French influence has found a place in English verse. It consists of an indeterminate number of stanzas of four lines each, the second and fourth line of each stanza being repeated as the first and third of the succeeding stanza, while the second and fourth lines of the last stanza repeat the first and third lines of the first stanza. Thus the whole forms a sort of interwoven circle, and is used most appropriately to represent any kind of monotony,--the dull round of repet.i.tion. From _Love in Idleness_ (1883) Mr. White reprints the following admirable specimen:

_Monologue d'outre Tombe._