Roundel
FAREWELL, I say, with tearful eye.Farewell, the dearest sweet to see !Farewell, o'er all the kindest she !Farewell, with heavy heart say I.Farewell, my love, my soul, good-bye !My poor heart needs must part from thee :Farewell, I say, with tearful eye.
Farewell, by whose default I dieDeaths more than told of tongue can be:Farewell, of all the world to meWhom most I blame and hold most high !Farewell, I say, with tearful eye.
Words in this poem
- tearful a.
- Abounding with tears; weeping; shedding tears; as, tearful eyes.
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Roundel is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Master François Villon of Paris, now first done into English verse, in the original forms, with a biographical and critical introduction, by John Payne, Internet Archive, the John Payne 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: François Villon, Roundel, in The Poems of Master François Villon of Paris (1892), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/villon-poems/rondel.html, id L27078.
Form and metre
Roundel is 12 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABBAABA eyeA · seeB · sheB · iA · byeA · theeB · eyeA
- 2 ABBAA dieA · beB · meB · highA · eyeA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| FAREWELL, I say, with tearful eye. | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| Farewell, the dearest sweet to see ! | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| Farewell, o'er all the kindest she ! | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| Farewell, with heavy heart say I. | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| Farewell, my love, my soul, good-bye ! | 8 | ·/······ |
| My poor heart needs must part from thee : | 8 | ········ |
| Farewell, I say, with tearful eye. | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| Farewell, by whose default I die | 8 | ·/··˘/·· |
| Deaths more than told of tongue can be: | 8 | ········ |
| Farewell, of all the world to me | 8 | ·/······ |
| Whom most I blame and hold most high ! | 8 | ········ |
| Farewell, I say, with tearful eye. | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
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.