The Chaucerian roundel was developed by (obviously) from (less obviously) the rondel rather than the roundel - not that there's a huge amount of difference. This example is dedicated to the Athenian gentleman who, in an e-mail, described my website as a "labor of love" (yes, it was Athens, Georgia).
I'd like to do this all the time. It doesn't pay, but I confess I love my day job rather less. I'm tiring of the search for rhyme And reason in life's heaving mess. I'd like to do this all the time. A poet's life must be sublime. Those lucky few the gods would bless Breathe only poetry. Oh yes, I'd like to do this all the time.
As with the rondel etc, there is a refrain, the first line being repeated at the end of the second and third stanzas. The rhyming scheme is Abb; abA; abbA, where the capital A's denote the repetition of entire lines. No particular line length or metre is required.
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© Bob Newman 2007. All rights reserved.
This page last updated 03/01/2007