Rime Royal Sonnet
Rime Royal
This stanza form is believed to be of Italian origin, and appears to be formed out of the, stanza called Ottava Rima, and by removing the fifth line. This reduces it to a seven line stanza of three rhymes, arranged with a rhyme scheme of;
a. b. a. b. b. c. c.. The unison of two stanza’s will construct a lovely sonnet form.
It seems probable that the inventor of this stanza was Geoffrey Chaucer, who had many compositions using this form, of which the following is an example:
THE PRIORESS’S TALE
Domine, dominus noster.
O Lord, Our Lord, Thy name how marvelous
Is spread through all this mighty world,” said she
“For not alone Thy praise so glorious
Is given by men of worth and dignity,
But from the mouths of children Thy bounty
Is hymned, yea, even sucklings at the breast
Do sometimes Thy laudation manifest.
“Wherefore in praise, as best I can or may,
Of Thee and of that pure white Lily-flower
Who bore Thee, and is yet a maid alway,
I tell a tale as best is in my power,
Not that I may increase Her heavenly dower,
For She Herself is honour and the one
From Whom spring wealth and goodness, next Her Son.
The subjects of rime royal poetry was courtly, moral, or classic tales, and generally must be elevated: love, chivalry, saints’ lives, classic tales, tragedies. Rime royal was not used for low comedy or bawdy tales and it seems natural for two stanzas of this form to make a sonnet, and the Sonnet Crown, Redoubled and Sequence would be natural additions as Chaucer has proven..
Autumn Love
Come take my hand my autumn angel
No longer summers colours bright
Lush green hues are no longer visible
And days share equal time with night.
Cool mornings and a paler sky sight
Leave a legacy the colours of red and gold.
So thankful crops are gathered, and sold,
This time is ours in our private nest
Away from cooler seas that chill the air
It is now we find that time alone is best
With evenings by a fire in a comfy chair
Now that time is best to show we care
And future lives stretching out forever
That we earned through our endeavour
Ryter Roethicle
http://www.thepoetsgarret.com/
My thanks to Ryter Roethicle of thepoetsgarret.
My example
The Tytle Cycle (Rime Royal Sonnet)
Though Caesar died upon the March’s Ides
It’s April’s fifteenth day that I’d eschew.
To Caesar, men must pay (and file besides),
it’s voluntary, (that’s a lie that grew).
They take from me so they may give to you!
Not you yourself – I think you think like me,
the other guys, who think things should be free.
Republics can’t endure once people learn
their votes can buy the guy who’ll make it so.
The tax breaks for which each of us so yearn
will go to those who pony up the dough.
Entitlements can do nothing but grow.
The “gimme” guys will take, the house will spend;
this is the way our government will end.
© Lawrencealot – March 17, 2015