Ballades and Rondeaus, Chants Royal, Sestinas, Villanelles, etc.

If the above rule is thought too strict--and it must be owned very few writers acknowledge it to the extent of excluding such words as "claim, acclaim, prove, reprove," etc.--at...

PANTOUM.--The _Pantoum_, at first sight, has little reason for being included in a volume of verse in strict traditional forms, that are nearly all of French origin, since it is...

In his _Art Poëtique_, 1555, Thomas Sibilet reviews many of the former writers, and gives the rules of the poetry then in force. Immediately after this date came another change;...

They are Sword and Sheath, they are Life and its Shows Which lovers have grace to see beneath, When the brow of June is crowned by the rose And the Earth hath rest from her long...

As though this feat in rhyming were not complex enough, a double sestina of twelve verses of twelve lines has been sometimes written. There are two, at least, of these _tours de...

I see thee throned aloft; thy fair hands hold Myrtles for joy, and euphrasy and rue: Laurels and roses round thy white brows rolled, And in thine eyes the royal heaven's hue: Bu...

He longs to steal a kiss of mine-- He may, if he'll return it: If I can read the tender sign, He longs to steal a kiss of mine; "In love and war"--you know the line Why cannot h...

Through the song of the thrush and the pipe of the plover Sweet voices come down through the binding lead; O queens that every age must discover For men, that Man's delight may...

A deadly blow, a moan of hate, His blood ran red as wine in chalice; "Come, love, our steeds are at the gate!" She oped the portal of the palace.

When big trout late in the twilight leap, When cuckoo clamoureth far and near, When glittering scythes in the hayfield reap, Then comes in the sweet o' the year! And it's oh to...

When from the portals of her paradise Sweet Eve went forth an exile with sad heart, She lingered at the thrice-barred gate in tears, And to the guardian of that Eden fair, As on...

This anthology is chosen entirely from poems written in the traditional fixed forms of the _ballade_, _chant royal_, _kyrielle_, _rondel_, _rondeau_, _rondeau redoublé_, _sestin...

When at the midnight chime are met Together elves of every hue, I trow the gazer will regret That peers upon their retinue; For limb awry and eye askew Have oft proclaimed a fai...

Within the grave our earnest eye Beholds a brother's body laid, Around us sombre hirelings ply The unctuous usage of their trade. Beneath the hedgerow laughs a maid, Held in a l...

If kin, fame, critics, age, you quote As fain to thwart and twit, Just try to feel your wings, and float Above the scornful kit:- Oh, modern singers, ye who vote Our times for s...

Ah truly; if for once I stray Into the treadmill,-'tis in play. I will not own its narrow code, It shall not be my cramped abode. Free of the fields, in open day I go my gait!

Where, 'neath what ravenous curses sore, Hath Well-Loved Louis lapsed and lain? Where is the Lion-Heart, who bore The spears toward Zion's gate again? And can so little space co...

My skating being done, I loitered home, And sought that day to lose her face again; But love was weaving in his golden loom My story up with hers, and all in vain I strove to lo...

When, in the merry realm of France, Bluff Francis ruled and loved and laughed, Now held the lists with knightly lance, Anon the knightly beaker quaffed; Where wit could wing his...

_The crowning pleasure in the compilation of this book is the permission to dedicate it to you, and this token of personal admiration is not without special fitness, since you w...