And it turned into triolets.”
This has a literary interest apart from its own merits, as the critics, on its first introduction, blamed Mr. Dobson severely for attempting to english the word triolet. “Suppose an audacious person were to extend the license, and introduce cabriolet as a thirdsman?” said The Academy, on June 23, 1877. In spite of Mr. W. S. Gilbert, in Princess Ida, trying also to rhyme it to violet—
“Oh, dainty triolet! oh, fragrant violet! oh, gentle heigho-let! (or little sigh)”—
the word remains French; and in a later version Mr. Dobson has re-cast the poem.
“I intended an ode,
And it turned to a sonnet.
I began à la mode.
I intended an ode;
But Rose crossed the road
In her latest new bonnet.