User:Andy.hawthorn

Rondeau Redoublé

The rondeau redoublé is a more complex version of the rondeau. It is also written on two rhymes, but in five stanzas of four lines each and one of five lines. The four lines of the first stanza are repeated as the fourth lines of stanzas 2 to 5, and the first part of the first line is repeated as a short fifth line to conclude the sixth stanza.

This can be tabulated as - A1,B1,A2,B2 / b,a,b,A1 / a,b,a,B1 / b,a,b,A2 / a,b,a,B2 / b,a,b,a,(A1)

The following example of the form was written from the point of view of one of the RAF officers carrying the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales to the plane that was to carry it to England.

Guard of Honour by Paul Hansford

The burden I bear is more heavy than lead.

The physical weight is a thing that I share,

but the loss that I feel will not leave my head.

Why did you have to die? Why is death so unfair?

I am close to you now. Yes, touching my hair

the flag with its lions of gold and of red

that wraps round your coffin. I know you are there.

The burden I bear is more heavy than lead.

My comrades move with me in slow, solemn tread.

Our eyes are all fixed in an unseeing stare.

Our shoulders support you in your oaken bed.

The physical weight is a thing that I share.

As I feel the world watching I try not to care.

My deepest emotions are best left unsaid.

Let others show grief like a garment they wear,

but the loss that I feel will not leave my head.

The flowers they leave like a carpet are spread,

In the books of remembrance they have written, "Somewhere

a star is extinguished because you are dead.

Why did you have to die? Why is death so unfair?"

The tears that we weep will soon grow more rare,

the rawness of grief turn to memory instead.

But deep in our hearts you will always be there,

and I ask, will I ever be able to shed

the burden I bear?