Showing posts with label Christina Rosetti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christina Rosetti. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Tuesday Poem - Roundels of various kinds on TP's 1st birthday




Today is Tuesday Poem's first birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TP! 



In lieu of cake baking, I've gathered a few round things together, beginning with the piped-icing ceiling rose in my daughter's bedroom - 





roundel |ˈroundl|noun1 a small disk, esp. a decorative medallion.• a picture or pattern contained in a circle.• Heraldry a plain filled circle as a charge (often with a special name according to color).2 a short poem consisting of three stanzas of three lines each, rhyming alternately, with the opening words repeated as a refrain after the first and third stanzas. The form, a variant of the rondeau, was developed by Swinburne.ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French rondel, from ro(u)nd- (see round ).

A roundel (not to be confused with the rondel) 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 [1]. He dedicated these poems to his friend Christina Rossetti, who then started writing roundels herself. (How marvelous this  mutual inspiration amongst friends. . . )

    A ROUNDEL    A roundel is wrought as a ring or a starbright sphere, (A)
    With craft of delight and with cunning of sound unsought, 
(B)
    That the heart of the hearer may smile if to pleasure his ear 
(A)
        A roundel is wrought. 
(R)

    Its jewel of music is carven of all or of aught - 
(B)
    Love, laughter, or mourning - remembrance of rapture or fear - 
(A)
    That fancy may fashion to hang in the ear of thought. 
(B)

    As a bird's quick song runs round, and the hearts in us hear 
(A)
    Pause answer to pause, and again the same strain caught, 
(B)
    So moves the device whence, round as a pearl or tear, 
(A)
        A roundel is wrought. 
(R)
    Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)

Mandala on a string/fancy umbrella stand (for a very flimsy umbrella)/elaborate city sidewalk drain cover. . .


In honour of our first birthday, Tuesday Poets have embarked on the creation of a communal poem, titled Tuesday. TP curator Mary McCallum posted the first line of this collaborative piece at a minute past midnight this morning. I was next up with a response to Mary's words; this poet-by-poet, line-by-line process will continue all week and culminate in a completed poem by Tuesday 12 April. Click on the quill to enter a whole new world and pop back to the TP hub during the week to witness the poem's unfolding. . . 




SOMETHING NEW

I have a newfound taste for lightness

albumen moon
mood stone
tone poem

I have a newfound lightness of taste

late wind
white ground
round sound

CB