The second line must reappear To form the final line; No matter if it soundeth queer. The second line must reappear; When poetry is far from clear It is considered fine! The second line must reappear To form the final line. Now, do you like the triolet? Your true opinion say. It puts me in a horrid pet; Now, do you like the triolet? I wish your real thought to get, So do be candid, pray. Now _do_ you like the triolet? Your true opinion say. W. BEST. _Detroit Free Press_, 1888. ――――:o:―――― THE RONDEAU. (_In a Rage._) Pray tell me why we can’t agree To bid the merry Muse run free? Pray tell me why we should incline To see her in a Rondeau pine, Or sigh in shackled minstrelsy? Why can’t she sing with lark-like glee, And revel in bright _jeux d’esprit_? Where form can’t fetter or confine―― Pray tell me why? Pray tell me why that frisky gee, Called Pegasus, should harnessed be? Why bit and bridle should combine To all his liveliness consign,―― To deck the Rondeau’s narrow line―― Pray tell me why? _Punch._ _RONDEAU._ _Ma foi, c’est fait de moi, car Isabeau M a conjuré de lui faire un rondeau. Cela me met en peine extrême Quoi! treize vers, huit en_ eau, _cinq en_ eme! _Je lui ferais aussitôt un bateau._ _En voilà cing pourtant en un monceau. Faisons-en huit en invoquant Brodeau, Et puis mettons, par quelque stratagème: Ma foi, c est fait._ _Si je pouvais encor de mon cerveau Tirer cinq vers l’ouvrage serait beau; Mais cependant je suis dedans l’onzième; Et ci je crois que je fais le douzième; En voila treize ajustés au niveau. Ma foi, c’est fait._ ――VOITURE. The following humorous paraphrase was written, some years since, by Mr. Austin Dobson:―― You bid me try, BLUE-EYES, to write A Rondeau. What! forthwith?――to-night? Reflect. Some skill I have, ’tis true; But thirteen lines!-and rhymed on two!―― “Refrain,” as well. Ah, hapless plight! Still there are five lines――ranged aright. These Gallic bonds, I feared, would fright My easy Muse. They did, till you―― _You_ bid me try! “That makes them eight.――The port’s in sight: Tis all because your eyes are bright! Now just a pair to end in “oo,”―― When maids command, what can’t we do! Behold! The RONDEAU――tasteful, light―― You bid me try!” ―――― A RONDEAU. (After Voiture’s “_Ma foy c’est fait_.”)