For a specimen of the rimed sestina, see Swinburne's _Poems and Ballads_, Second Series, p. 46. The Virelai, which we have seen was one of the forms used by Chaucer, though not represented in his extant poetry, has been but slightly imitated in English. It was a poem of indeterminate length, composed of longer and shorter lines, the longer lines in each stanza riming, the shorter lines in the same stanza also riming, while in the succeeding stanza the short-line rime of the previous stanza became the long-line rime. The last stanza took the unrepeated rime of the first stanza as its new rime; so that in the whole poem each rime was used in two stanzas. Charles Cotton, one of whose rondeaus has been quoted, also wrote a virelai. A modern specimen, by Mr. John Payne, is quoted in _Ballades and Rondeaus_, p. 276. The Pantoum is another very interesting form belonging in this group rather than elsewhere, although it originated not in France but Malaysia. It was imitated in French by Victor Hugo and other poets, and through French influence has found a place in English verse. It consists of an indeterminate number of stanzas of four lines each, the second and fourth line of each stanza being repeated as the first and third of the succeeding stanza, while the second and fourth lines of the last stanza repeat the first and third lines of the first stanza. Thus the whole forms a sort of interwoven circle, and is used most appropriately to represent any kind of monotony,--the dull round of repetition. From _Love in Idleness_ (1883) Mr. White reprints the following admirable specimen: _Monologue d'outre Tombe._ Morn and noon and night, Here I lie in the ground; No faintest glimmer of light, No lightest whisper of sound. Here I lie in the ground; The worms glide out and in; No lightest whisper of sound, After a lifelong din. The worms glide out and in; They are fruitful and multiply; After a lifelong din I watch them quietly. They are fruitful and multiply, My body dwindles the while; I watch them quietly; I can scarce forbear a smile. My body dwindles the while, I shall soon be a skeleton; I can scarce forbear a smile, They have had such glorious fun. I shall soon be a skeleton, The worms are wriggling away; They have had such glorious fun, They will fertilize my clay. The worms are wriggling away, They are what I have been; They will fertilize my clay; The grass will grow more green. They are what I have been. I shall change, but what of that? The grass will grow more green, The parson's sheep grow fat. I shall change, but what of that? All flesh is grass, one says. The parson's sheep grow fat, The parson grows in grace. All flesh is grass, one says; Grass becomes flesh, one knows; The parson grows in grace: I am the grace he grows.