Dryden’s Roundelay
Type: Structure, Metrical Requirement, Repetitive Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Isosyllabic
Description: This is an isosyllabic fixed form in four sestets turning on only two rhymes with interweaving repetition. The sestets use alternating rhyme, as does the sicilian sestet. The last couplet is a refrain that appears in all four stanzas. The third and fourth lines in one stanza are the first and second in the next. So, there are only four lines not repeated: the first and second in the first stanza and the third and fourth in the fourth.
Attributed to: John Dryden
Origin: English
Schematic: Rhyme and repetition:
abA1B1A2B2
A1B1A3B3A2B2
A3B3A4B4A2B2
A4B4abA2B2.
Where A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, and B4 are
repetitions or refrains.
Meter: Xx Xx Xx Xx (Trochaic tetrameter)
Rhythm/Stanza Length: 6
Line/Poem Length: 24
Pasted from <http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/001/100.shtml>
My Thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his work on the wonderful poetrybase resource.
___________
Roundelay as defined in the dictionary is a short simple song with a refrain. However as a fixed stanzaic form, the English poet John Dryden, 1631-1700, created a two rhyme, repetition of lines in a set pattern that is recognized as the Roundelay, the English Roundelay or the Dryden Roundelay. In essence the poet writes only 12 of the 24 lines.
The English Roundelay is:
• stanzaic, four sixains (6 line stanzas).
• metric, often written in trochaic tetrameter with some of the lines catalectic (one syllable short) to create a strong end rhyme. (SuSuSuSu or SuSuSuS) S = stressed, u = unstressed
• rhymed, only 2 rhymes are used throughout the poem, alternating rhyme scheme ababab.
• composed with all lines repeated in a prescribed pattern except L1, L2, L21, and L22 which are not repeated. Pattern of repetition is abA¹B¹A²B² A¹B¹A³B³A²B² A³B³A4B4A²B² A4B4abA²B² .
from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?/topic/654-roundelay-or-english-roundelay-or-drydens-roundelay/>
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.
Here is Roundelay by John Dryden
I.
Chloe found Amyntas lying,
All in tears, upon the plain,
Sighing to himself, and crying,
Wretched I, to love in vain!
Kiss me, dear, before my dying;
Kiss me once, and ease my pain.
II.
Sighing to himself, and crying,
Wretched I, to love in vain!
Ever scorning, and denying
To reward your faithful swain.
Kiss me, dear, before my dying;
Kiss me once, and ease my pain.
III.
Ever scorning, and denying
To reward your faithful swain.—
Chloe, laughing at his crying,
Told him, that he loved in vain.
Kiss me, dear, before my dying;
Kiss me once, and ease my pain.
IV.
Chloe, laughing at his crying,
Told him, that he loved in vain;
But, repenting, and complying,
When he kissed, she kissed again:
Kissed him up, before his dying;
Kissed him up, and eased his pain.
Pasted from <http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/roundelay/>
Related forms: Dryden’s Roundelay, Rondelet, Roundelay, Termelay
My Example Poem
Wrapper Rage (Dryden’s Roundelay)
Fumbling like a foolish flake-
Package had such sight appeal.
Nigh impossible to break
Sealed with some sadistic zeal.
Foiled now is the thoughtless snake
Who would steal small things piecemeal.
Nigh impossible to break
Sealed with some sadistic zeal.
Wrapper rage, for heaven’s sake
Now is part of shopping’s deal.
Foiled now is the thoughtless snake
Who would steal small things piecemeal.
Wrapper rage, for heaven’s sake
Now is part of shopping’s deal.
Sometimes tin snips it may take
getting through the whole ordeal.
Foiled now is the thoughtless snake
Who would steal small things piecemeal.
Sometimes tin snips it may take
getting through the whole ordeal.
Save the clamshells just to bake!
Give us cartons we can peel.
Foiled now is the thoughtless snake
Who would steal small things piecemeal.
© Lawrencealot – August 8, 2014
