THE RONDEAU.

First find your refrain—then build as you go With delicate touch, neither heavy nor slow, But dainty and light as a gossamer thread, Or the fleecy white cloud that is breaking o’erhead, Or the sea-foam that curls in the soft evening glow; And your rhyme must be swinging—not all in a row, But as waves on the sands in fine ebb and quick flow; Yet of rules for a rondeau I hold this the head— First find your refrain. For the subject—there’s nothing above or below, That a poet can learn or a critic may know, But a rondeau will hold a rhyme-ring that will wed The thought to the thing; yet whatever is said Will ne’er be a rondeau till you with one blow— First find your refrain.