Roundel (poem) Totally Explained

Everything about Roundel Poem totally explained

A roundel is a form of verse used in English language poetry devised by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909). It is a variation of the French Rondeau form. It makes use of refrains, repeated according to a certain stylized pattern. A roundel consists of nine lines each having the same number of syllables, plus a refrain after the third line and after the last line. The refrain must be identical with the beginning of the first line: it may be a half-line, and rhymes with the second line. It has three stanzas and its rhyme scheme is as follows: A B A R ; B A B ; A B A R where R is the refrain. Swinburne had published a book A Century of Roundels . He dedicated these poems to his friend Christina Rossetti, who then started writing roundels herself.

Examples

Swinburne’s poem A BABY'S DEATH contains seven roundels, which follows all the above rules. Here is the fourth roundel, which was set to music by the English composer Sir Edward Elgar: ť The little eyes that never knew (A)

   Light other than of dawning skies, (B) ť What new life now lights up anew (A)

   :The little eyes ? (R) ť Who knows but on their sleep may rise (B)

   Such light as never heaven let through (A) ť To lighten earth from Paradise? (B)

ť No storm, we know, may change the blue (A)

   Soft heaven that haply death descries (B) ť No tears, like these in ours, bedew (A)

   :The little eyes. (R) Swinburne’s first Roundel was called THE ROUNDEL: ť A roundel is wrought as a ring or a starbright sphere,

   With craft of delight and with cunning of sound unsought, ť That the heart of the hearer may smile if to pleasure his ear

   :A roundel is wrought. ť Its jewel of music is carven of all or of aught -

   Love, laughter, or mourning--remembrance of rapture or fear - ť That fancy may fashion to hang in the ear of thought.

ť As a bird's quick song runs round, and the hearts in us hear

   Pause answer to pause, and again the same strain caught, ť So moves the device whence, round as a pearl or tear,

   :A roundel is wrought.

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