Poem by Donald Robert Perry Marquis

The Rondeau

YOUR rondeau's tale must still be light --
No bugle-call to life's stern fight!
Rather a smiling interlude
Memorial to some transient mood
Of idle love and gala-night.

Its manner is the merest sleight
O' hand; yet therein dwells its might,
For if the heavier touch intrude
Your rondeau's stale.

Fragrant and fragile, fleet and bright,
And wing'd with whim, it gleams in flight
Like April blossoms wind-pursued
Down aisles of tangled underwood; --
Nor be too serious when you write
Your rondeau's tail!

1. New York
2. The Earth, It Is Also a Star
3. They Had No Poet …
4. Across the Night
5. Words Are Not Guns

Print

1641 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version