The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-10-13
FANCIES IN VERSE.
CURIOUS METHODS OF. RHYMiNG
WHICH ARE THE FASHION.


strucicd After the Methods Of the
Troabadours- paiiade, Rondeasi. Triolct
and NirciaI-Tor Winter Evenings.
Some Of our readers Of a literary turn may
be interested i'm TIE new forms OF verse,
which really are immensely old, but which,
like many old things adopted into the new,
are lust now quite the fashion among poets
or poeiastcrs Many Of these forms, with
their curious repeated rhymes, and hall mad
lnterwcaving OF rhymes originated with the
troabadours and trouycrcs and PrOvencal
singers generally but they have been
changed in process OF growth till their orig
inaior. would hardly know them, OF these
.5rm-, adapted at any rate, from the old
Fr-.ch, those cnjoyng mos, prominence to-
iar are the balladc, the chant royal the
kyTiele, the paniomine, Tie rondel, rondeau
aud rondelot, The CLOSE, the sestina the trio
bet, the vlllancllc the lay and the virelai.
The refrain or burden hasa great deal to
do with these singular little songs In other
poetry. says o critic, an ordinary refrain is
"kept 10 ono note rc.ounding through the
whole poem. much as the drone bass in pill
ferari or uusette music is KEEP; going through
out"
Mr. austin Dobson Is said to have written
the first halale which we have in English.
The ballado, according to rule, has three
eight line stanzas, and q verse called the en-
voy. 40 the close Of four lines; or it can
consist of three stanzas OF ten lines and an
envoy Of five The same set Of rhymes must
be used in every verse, but never the same
word again, except in the refrain which
must close each stanza, aud the envoy, the
envoy having the rhymes of the last half Of
the last verse The whole is governed de5-
politically by the refrain, an eight syllabied
refrain requiring an eight line stanza, ten
syllabled ten line stanza, and the sense Of
the stanza must not pause IN the middle,
but must continue 20 lie capped by tue re-
frain. The envoy always remembers the old
fashion Of addressing the verse to a person
a person Of distinction, as the prince or lord
or chatelane-and should be the climax Of
the whole.
Another quaint verse form is tho kyrielle,
a four lined verse Of eight syllablcd lines,
having each last line the same. Another is
the pantoum, which 50 far from being OF
Old French. is Of Asiatic or Malay descent,
il consists of four lined stanzas, the second
and fourth lines Of each making the first and
third Of tho next, and so on indefinitely,
closing by making the second and fourth
lines of the last stanza from tho first and
third of the first one. The rOndel, the old
form Of the word rondcau, came directly
from Provence and greatly resembles the
triolet The rondeau is written on two
rhymes; it has thirteen lines and two m
rhymed refrain lines, the refrain usually be-
ing a repetition of the frs half OF the first
line but being Of especial Importance, tho
climax of the whole arrangement, and Of
spontaneous and hot labored effect, being in
troduced as if tho lines flowed into il Of their
own accord The ROUNDED, another slight
variation is thought TO be the invention Of
Mr. Swinburne.
The rondelet is just little matter Of seven
lines, used TO express any brief fancy, open
ing with a line Of four syllables which Is re-
peated after one eight syllabled line, and
again after three Others tho first of which
three lines rhymes with the repeat, the others
with the second line The CLOSE, another
freak, is used moro in Spanish and Portu-
guese than in French; it begins with a
Quatrain called q texte, which 10 amplities
IN four stanzas OF ten lines, each closing with
ono Of the lines Of the opening qua.rain, in
every verse the sixth ninth and tenth lines
rhyming with each other, other lines taking
any rhymes. The sestina was invented by
the troubadour Arnaut Daniel. and was used
by Dante and Petrarch; il is Of six stanzas
Of six lines each; the six words that end the
six lines do not rhyme, but the same six
words end every line throughout the poem,
closing with a three limo stanza which uses
the six words, three al the end and three in
the middle.
The triolet is Tho play Of words and tune
which has been most popular, because most
easy, probably. l. consists Of eight lines,
and keeps to tNO rhymes; the first pair Of
rhymes are again tic seventh and eighth,
and the first is also the fourth; the third.
fourth and fifth rhyme with the first, the
sixth with tho second. The triolet has to
tell It's story In five lines, and carry The re-
peat Sd easily as 10 be charming and not
strained; the first one printed in modern
English was 10y Mr. Robert Bridges. The
willamette. Of which species Mr. Edmund
Gosse wrote tho first in English has been
called 1.-THE most rayishiag jewel worn by
the muse Erato,' 10 was originally a shep-
herds song; 10 is complete In nineteen lines,
i've three iIAt4 Stiifdn anu uA ciuiHt. DLo
OF four lines; eight lines given up to the re-
frain, which consists of the first and third
lines used alternately, and at tho close both
together There remain the lay and the
vireai The lay is of couplets Of five sylla-
bled lines, all tho samo recurring rhyme, in
tersperscd by single lines Of two syllables
rhymine, thus only two rhymes arc used,
each new stanza taking new rhymes. But
in the vireai there is o sequence Of the same
rhymes throughout all the stanzas, the SEC
ond verse taking the short line rhymes for
it's own long lines, and new rhyme for the
short ones.
We have been thus minute in describing
these forms Of word play on account of the
general interest in them Their composition
doubtless will AFFORD much amusing enter
taiumeut TO social gatherings Of winter even
ings or Of summer mornings on hotel piazzas
but 10 does not seem 70 us that verses thus
artlcially made up bear much relation 10
the poetry Of Milton and Shakespeare, Of
Byron and Tennyson -Harpcr's Bazaar.
Sickcnine Specimen Of Humanity.