In Swinburne also (Poems, ii. 46) we have a sextain of rhymed stanzas, the first stanza rhyming day, night, way, light,may, delight. All these recur in the following stanzas in a similar order, though not so strictly observed as in the sextain by Spenser, mentioned above (cf. Metrik, ii, § 577).
One example (probably unique in English poetry) of what is known as the Double Sextain is found in Swinburne’s The Complaint of Lisa (Poems, ii. 60–8), a poem in which he has given one of the most brilliant specimens of his skill in rhyming. It consists of twelve twelve-lined stanzas and a six-lined envoy. The first two stanzas rhyme a b c A B d C e f E D F, F a f D A C b e c E d B; the envoy on the scheme
(F) E (e) f (C) A (c) d (b) a (D) B;
where the corresponding capital and small letters denote different words rhyming with each other. Cf. Metrik, ii, § 581
§ 322. Side by side with these well-known poems of fixed form, mostly constructed on Italian models, there are some others influenced by French poetry which have been introduced into English for the most part by contemporary modern poets, as e.g. Swinburne, Austin Dobson, Robert Bridges, D.G. Rossetti, A. Lang, and E.W. Gosse[205]. These are the virelay, roundel, rondeau, triolet, villanelle, ballade, and chant royal. The virelay seems to have been in vogue in earlier English poetry. Chaucer, e.g. in his Legende of good Women, v. 423, says of himself that he had written balades, roundels, and virelayes. But only isolated specimens of it have been preserved; in more recent times it has not been imitated at all.
According to Lubarsch[206] the virelay consists of verses of unequal length, joined by concatenatio so as to form stanzas of nine lines on the scheme: a a b a a b a a b, b b c b b c b b c, c c d c c d c c d, &c. Apart from this, however, there were undoubtedly other forms in existence (cf. Bartsch, Chrestomathie de l’ancien français, p. 413). Morris, in the Aldine edition of Chaucer’s Works, vol. vi, p. 305, gives a virelay of two-foot iambic verses in six-lined stanzas on the model
a a a b a a a b, b b b c b b b c c c c d c c c d, &c.
(quoted Metrik, i, § 155)
§ 323. The roundel, used by Eustache Deschamps, Charles d’Orléans, and others, was introduced into English poetry, it seems, by Chaucer. But there are only a few roundels of his in existence; one of these occurs in The Assembly of Fowles (ll. 681–8); if the verses of the burden are repeated, as printed in the Globe Edition, pp. 638–9, it has thirteen lines (a b b a b a b a b b a b b, the thick types showing the refrain-verses):
Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,