Rondel, poetic form Options

[JustDaniel]

Rondel


A French form consisting of 13 lines: two quatrains and a quintet, rhyming as follows: ABba abAB abbaA. The capital letters are the refrains, or repeats.


Example:

A Rondel for Margarita

On the carousel, on a summer's day,
As the rest of the fairground goes gliding by,
We coast together, now low, now high,
But how quickly the moment slips away.

She laughs at the music, elfin and fey,
She laughs for joy at the sapphire sky,
On the carousel, on a summer's day,
As the rest of the fairground goes gliding by.

How sweet her delight in simple play,
Someday, without me, she'll take to the sky,
Brave little fledgling, ready to fly.
We must hold these moments while we may
On the carousel, on a summer's day.

Copyright © 2004 Gail Kavanagh

from Shadow Poetry

[JustDaniel]

A Round to Work

I find it hard to work today
with no one here to urge me on.
I’m glad the air conditioner's on,
but summer lures me out to play

or dawdle in the garden, pay
a pool-side visit, mow the lawn.
I find it hard to work today
with no one here to urge me on.

The blacks-on-whites of notes turn gray,
ooze down the page I'm writing on
to ocean sands I'd walk upon…
I think my mind has fled. Let's say
I find it hard to work today.

© MLee Dickens'son (Daniel J Ricketts)