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Help Me, Rondel!

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07-25-2010 at 11:22:04 PM

Help Me, Rondel!

The rondel is a cute and tricky little 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. See what you can do with this one!


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

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08-06-2010 at 12:25:31 PM

RE: Help Me, Rondel! - the Military next door

Help Me, Rondel!

the Military next door
_________________


The lonely road is hiding a new scene
The farmhouse was replaced by a flat mound
the signs still posted, say, no hanging 'round
the barbed wire fences signal, leave ... unseen

protecting barren land beyond the green
of bushes and new trees, there is no sound.
The lonely road is hiding a new scene
the farmhouse was replaced by a flat mound

and there, amongst the nothingness, obscene
a tower with four dishes, sublte-bound
to feed the city, they built, underground.
Increasing speeds to 60 north, south-bound
The lonely road is hiding a new scene.

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09-05-2010 at 04:40:40 PM

RE:

Very nice, springsize! This one sneaked i n here while I wasn't looking! Excellent poem, repeating lines in the right places and the only no-no is the last stanza, which should be abbaa and you made it abbba. Otherwise, applause here!wink

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Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) Greek philosopher.
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