Like
so many other French forms, the Retourne
is
all about repetition. It contains four quatrains
and
each line has eight syllables.
The
trick is that the first stanza's second line must
also
be the second stanza's first line,
the
first stanza's third line is the third stanza's first,
and
the first stanza's fourth line is the fourth stanza's first.
Retournes
do not have to rhyme.
Example
Poem
Abandoned
I'd loved her
only all my life.
She found
another to her taste.
She left me--
I now have no wife.
New city, no
friends; joys erased.
She found
another to her taste.
I begged,
pleaded, asked her to stay
"I miss
you, come back! what a waste,
keeping your
lover is okay."
She left me--
I now have no wife.
Anquish
bestirred me. I tried drink.
But quit to
give my boys a life.
Work, feed
the boys, cry, try to think.
New city, no
friends; joys erased.
It took a
long while, 'ere I tried
to date-- I
was feeling disgraced
How could I
ever lose my bride?
©
Lawrencealot - April, 2012
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