A rondeau (plural rondeaux) is a form of medieval and
Renaissance French poetry. Together with the ballade and the virelai it was considered one of the three formes
fixes, and one of the verse forms in France most commonly set to music
between the late 13th and the 15th centuries. It is structured around a
pattern of repetition or refrain. The rondeau is believed to
have originated in dance songs involving alternating singing of the refrain
elements.
The term
"Rondeau" is today used both in a wider sense, covering several older
variants of the form–which are sometimes distinguished as the triolet and rondel–and in a narrower sense
referring to a 15-line variant which developed from these forms in the 15th and
16th centuries. Rondeau can easily be found
by its refrain or repeated lines or some words in another stanza. Sometimes,
even the whole stanza is repeated in different stanzas.
The rondeau
began as a lyric form in thirteenth-century France, popular among medieval
court poets and musicians. Named after the French word for “round," the
rondeau is characterized by the repeating lines of the rentrement, or refrain, and the two
rhyme sounds throughout. The form was originally a musical vehicle devoted to
emotional subjects such as spiritual worship, courtship, romance, and the
changing of seasons. To sing of melancholy was another way of using the
rondeau, but thoughts on pain and loss often turned to a cheerful in the final
stanza.
The rondeau’s
form is not difficult to recognize: as it is known and practiced today, it is
composed of fifteen lines, eight to ten syllables each, divided stanzaically
into a quintet, a quatrain, and a sestet. The rentrement consists of the first few words or the
entire first line of the first stanza, and it recurs as the last line of both
the second and third stanzas. Two rhymes guide the music of the rondeau, whose
rhyme scheme is as follows (R representing the refrain): aabba aabR aabbaR.
Where the rentrement appears in its traditional French
form, it typically does not adhere to the rhyme-scheme--in the interest of
maintaining the line’s buoyancy and force. But when nineteenth-century English
poets adopted the rondeau, many saw (or heard) the rentrement as more effective if rhymed and
therefore more assimilated into the rest of the poem. An example of a solemn
rondeau is the Canadian army physician John McCrae’s 1915 wartime poem, "In Flanders Fields":
In
Flanders Fields
By John McCrae
In
Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between
the crosses, row on row,
That
mark our place, and in the sky,
The
larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce
heard amid the guns below.
We
are the dead; short days ago
We
lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved
and were loved, and now we lie
In
Flanders fields.
Take
up our quarrel with the foe!
To
you from failing hands we throw
The
torch; be yours to hold it high!
If
ye break faith with us who die
We
shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In
Flanders fields.
John McCrae a poet from Ontario who
wrote throughout his life, in his poem “In Flanders Field” tells about the
death of his dear friend Lieutenant Colonel John who was killed in the “Second
Battle of Ypres”. One of the most popular and the most quoted poem from the
First World War resulted in using the poem as a means of propaganda, to raise
money by the use of breaking the war bonds and most importantly, the poem was
used as an appeal for the citizens to help the country by joining the war.
The “red poppies” which grew on the graves of
the dead soldiers made remembrance poppy as one of the most significant war
symbol for the soldiers who died fighting in wars for their own countries.
In his poem “In Flanders Field”, John
McCrae clearly portrays his feelings about the death of his fellow soldier
friend and how the death transited the struggle in his life with the peace of
mind he attained. Written from the point of view of a dead person, “In Flanders
field” was the most popular poem of the era. The poem if read properly is the
exact description of the scene that a soldier faces while fighting for his own
country, the poem also truly and beautifully describes the growth of red
poppies on the graves of the soldiers.
The reader is mesmerized by the poem mainly
because of the reason that the poem exactly explains the view of the graves of
the dead soldiers, the beautiful poppies in a way explain the happiness of the
dead soldiers because they died fighting for their motherland. They are
different from the normal people who die because their death is marked by
patriotism. The poet is witnessing sleepless nights because he cannot take the
picture of his dead friend out of his mind. Though the poet is proud of his friends
sacrifice, but still bearing the death of someone you love is nearly
impossible.
John McCrae in a way gives an
important message to the readers; they shall never forget the fact that if
today they are living this beautiful life in a free country; it is only because
of the sacrifice of thousands of these soldiers. The citizens in general should
never forget that they should always be ready to support their country, their
motherland if the situation demands so.
The poem was written way back before the time
when the war started appearing bitter and lost its romanticism feature. Though
the poem has been criticized for being vicious and stupid and having two
different tones by historian Paul Fussell, still it remains the best poem which
brings out the patriotic feelings out of a readers heart.
Bicara
Itu Gampang
Hans Magnus Enzemberger.
Bicara itu gampang...
Benarkah????
Bicara itu gampang
Tapi, kata-kata tak dapat dimakan
Maka buatlah roti
Membuat roti itu sulit
Maka jadilah tukang roti
Tapi, tukang roti tak dapat ditinggali
Maka buatlah rumah
Membuat rumah itu sulit
Maka jadilah tukang bangunan
Tapi, di atas gunung tak bisa dibangun rumah
Maka pindahkanlah gunung
Memindahkan gunung itu sulit
Maka jadilah penyihir
Tapi, pikiran tak dapat di dengar
Maka bicaralah
Bicara itu sulit
Maka "jadilah kau seperti kau adanya"
Benarkah????
Bicara itu gampang
Tapi, kata-kata tak dapat dimakan
Maka buatlah roti
Membuat roti itu sulit
Maka jadilah tukang roti
Tapi, tukang roti tak dapat ditinggali
Maka buatlah rumah
Membuat rumah itu sulit
Maka jadilah tukang bangunan
Tapi, di atas gunung tak bisa dibangun rumah
Maka pindahkanlah gunung
Memindahkan gunung itu sulit
Maka jadilah penyihir
Tapi, pikiran tak dapat di dengar
Maka bicaralah
Bicara itu sulit
Maka "jadilah kau seperti kau adanya"
dan teruslah bergumam sendirian,
wahai makhluk tak berguna.
Puisi ini diilhami oleh masa kelam
ketika Nazi berkuasa, dan Hans pada zamannya adalah korban dari peristiwa
tersebut yang menyebabkan Jerman jatuh dalam jurang perang dunia kedua. Yang
saya hendak katakan adalah, meski apa yang ditulisnya itu tanpa metafora,
nyatanya keseluruhan teks tersebut telah menjelma menjadi metafora tertentu,
terutama bila puisi tersebut hendak kita tafsir, pakai teori apa pun.
Lihatlah, apa yang ditulis oleh Hans
tentang kata-kata yang tidak bisa dimakan hingga menyuruh kita jadi tukang
roti, sesungguhnya bukan hanya permainan kata-kata belaka, akan tetapi ada isi
pikiran yang dihayati. Intinya hanya kerja keraslah yang akan menghasilkan
sesuatu, dan bukan omong kosong.
Source : Wikipedia &all
*this writing was published as an assignment, I'm sorry I was forget to put the source :(