Charles d'Orléans: Rondel
STRENGTHEN, my Love, this castle of my heart,And with some store of pleasure give me aid,For Jealousy, with all them of his part,Strong siege about the weary tower has laid.Nay, if to break his bands thou art afraid,Too weak to make his cruel force depart,Strengthen at least this castle of my heart,And with some store of pleasure give me aid.Nay, let not Jealousy, for all his artBe master, and the tower in ruin laid,That still, ah Love! thy gracious rule obeyed.Advance, and give me succour of thy part;Strengthen, my Love, this castle of my heart.
Words in this poem
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- succour v. t.
- tiono run to, or run to support; hence, to help or relieve when in difficulty, want, or distress; to assist and deliver from suffering; to relieve; as, to succor a besieged city. [OE. socouren, OF. sucurre, soucourre, secorre, F. secourir, L. succurrere, succursum, to run under, run to the aid of, help, succor; sub under + currere to run.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Charles d'Orléans: Rondel is in the public domain. This text is taken from Ballads and Lyrics of Old France, with Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #795, the Andrew Lang translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Various, Charles d'Orléans: Rondel, in Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (1872), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #795, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lang-old-france/rondel.html, id L26886.
Form and metre
Charles d'Orléans: Rondel is 13 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABBAABABBAA heartA · aidB · partA · laidB · afraidB · departA · heartA · aidB · artA · laidB · obeyedB · partA · heartA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| STRENGTHEN, my Love, this castle of my heart, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| And with some store of pleasure give me aid, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| For Jealousy, with all them of his part, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Strong siege about the weary tower has laid. | 10 | ·····/˘/·· |
| Nay, if to break his bands thou art afraid, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Too weak to make his cruel force depart, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Strengthen at least this castle of my heart, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| And with some store of pleasure give me aid. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Nay, let not Jealousy, for all his art | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Be master, and the tower in ruin laid, | 10 | ·/˘··/·/˘· |
| That still, ah Love! thy gracious rule obeyed. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Advance, and give me succour of thy part; | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Strengthen, my Love, this castle of my heart. | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.