Exploration of Lyric Poetry Forms: Aubade, Canzone, and More

1. Musical Types & Forms of Poetry Lyric Aubade Canzone Carol Madrigal

2. Lyric Short poem, expressive of feelings & emotion. Often meant for musical accompaniment. Examples: Robert Herrick – “To Anthea, who May Command him Anything” John Clare – “I Hid My Love” Louise Bogan – “Song for the Last Act” Louise Gluck – “Vita Nova”

3. “To Anthea, who may Command him Anything” by Robert Herrick Bid me despair, and I'll despair, Under that cypress tree; Or bid me die, and I will dare E'en death, to die for thee. Bid me to live, and I will live Thy protestant to be; Or bid me love, and I will give A loving heart to thee. Thou art my life, my love, my heart, The very eyes of me; And hast command of every part, To live and die for thee. A heart as soft, a heart as kind, A heart as sound and free, As in the whole world thou canst find, That heart I'll give to thee. Bid that heart stay, and it will stay, To honour thy decree; Or bid it languish quite away, And 't shall do so for thee. Bid me to weep, and I will weep, While I have eyes to see; And having none, yet I will keep A heart to weep for thee.

4. “I Hid my Love” by John Clare I hid my love in field and town Till e'en the breeze would knock me down; The bees seemed singing ballads o'er, The fly's bass turned a lion's roar; And even silence found a tongue, To haunt me all the summer long; The riddle nature could not prove Was nothing else but secret love. I hid my love when young till I Couldn't bear the buzzing of a fly; I hid my love to my despite Till I could not bear to look at light: I dare not gaze upon her face But left her memory in each place; Where'er I saw a wild flower lie I kissed and bade my love good-bye. I met her in the greenest dells, Where dewdrops pearl the wood bluebells; The lost breeze kissed her bright blue eye, The bee kissed and went singing by, A sunbeam found a passage there, A gold chain round her neck so fair; As secret as the wild bee's song She lay there all the summer long.

5. Aubade A love poem or song- Welcomes the arrival of dawn or sometimes… Laments the arrival of dawn Original form from France Examples: John Donne – “The Sun Rising” Louise Bogan – “Leave-Taking”

6. “Leave-Taking” by Louise Bogan (Aubade) I do not know where either of us can turn Just at first, waking from the sleep of each other. I do not know how we can bear The river struck by the gold plummet of the moon, Or many trees shaken together in the darkness. We shall wish not to be alone And that love were not dispersed and set free— Though you defeat me, And I be heavy upon you. But like earth heaped over the heart Is love grown perfect. Like a shell over the beat of life Is love perfect to the last. So let it be the same Whether we turn to the dark or to the kiss of another; Let us know this for leavetaking, That I may not be heavy upon you, That you may blind me no more.

7. Canzone Means “song” in Italian. A lyric poem originating in Italy & France. Usually made up of 10-line syllables or hendecasyllabic lines with end-rhyme. Rhyme scheme may vary. Can have up to 20 lines. Can be broken into stanzas. A bit more flexible than the sonnet, but… The Canzone is an ancestor of the Sonnet! (Hendecasyllabic is a metrical line of 11 syllables.)

8. “Hendecasyllabics” by Algernon Charles Swinburne All are taken away; the season wasted, Like an ember among the fallen ashes. Now with light of the winter days, with moonlight, Light of snow, and the bitter light of hoarfrost, We bring flowers that fade not after autumn, Pale white chaplets and crowns of latter seasons, Fair false leaves (but the summer leaves were falser), Woven under the eyes of stars and planets When low light was upon the windy reaches Where the flower of foam was blown, a lily Dropt among the sonorous fruitless furrows And green fields of the sea that make no pasture: Since the winter begins, the weeping winter, All whose flowers are tears, and round his temples Iron blossom of frost is bound for ever." In the month of the long decline of roses I, beholding the summer dead before me, Set my face to the sea and journeyed silent, Gazing eagerly where above the sea-mark Flame as fierce as the fervid eyes of lions Half divided the eyelids of the sunset; Till I heard as it were a noise of waters Moving tremulous under feet of angels Multitudinous, out of all the heavens; Knew the fluttering wind, the fluttered foliage, Shaken fitfully, full of sound and shadow; And saw, trodden upon by noiseless angels, Long mysterious reaches fed with moonlight, Sweet sad straits in a soft subsiding channel, Blown about by the lips of winds I knew not, Winds not born in the north nor any quarter, Winds not warm with the south nor any sunshine; Heard between them a voice of exultation, "Lo, the summer is dead, the sun is faded, Even like as a leaf the year is withered, All the fruits of the day from all her branches Gathered, neither is any left to gather. All the flowers are dead, the tender blossoms, (This is not a canzone, but it is a great example of hendecasyllabic. Each line has 11 syllables.)

9. “Canzone 1” by Dante Alighieri Ladies that have intelligence in love, Of my own lady I will speak with you; Not that I hope to count her praises through, But telling what I may, to ease my mind. And I declare that when I speak thereof Love sheds such perfect sweetness over me That if my courage failed not, certainly To him my listeners must be all resigned. Wherefore I will not speak in such large kind That mine own speech should foil me, which were base; But only will discourse of her high grace In these poor words, the best that I can find, With you alone, dear dames and damozels: 'Twere ill to speak thereof with any else.

10. Carol Hymn or poem often sung by a group – with individuals taking the changing stanzas & the group taking the refrain. Robert Southwell – “The Burning Babe” Many traditional Christmas songs are carols: “I Saw Three Ships” “The Twelve Days of Christmas”

11. “The Burning Babe” by Robert Southwell As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow, Surpris’d I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow; And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near, A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear; Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed. “Alas!” quoth he, “but newly born, in fiery heats I fry, Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I! My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns, Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns; The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals, The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defiled souls, For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good, So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.” With this he vanish’d out of sight and swiftly shrunk away, And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.

12. On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me: 12 Drummers Drumming 11 Pipers Piping 10 Lords a Leaping 9 Ladies Dancing 8 Maids a Milking 7 Swans a Swimming 6 Geese a Laying 5 Golden Rings 4 Calling Birds 3 French Hens 2 Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a Pear Tree Last stanza of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”

13. Madrigal A song or short lyric poem. Meant for multiple singers (readers). From Italy, but also popular in England. No fixed metrical requirements. Example: Thomas Lodge – “Rosalind’s Madrigal”

14. “Rosalind’s Madrigal” by Thomas Lodge Else I with roses every day Will whip you hence, And bind you, when you long to play, For your offense. I’ll shut mine eyes to keep you in, I’ll make you fast it for your sin, I’ll count your power not worth a pin. Alas! what hereby shall I win If he gainsay me? Love in my bosom like a bee Doth suck his sweet; Now with his wings he plays with me, Now with his feet. Within mine eyes he makes his nest, His bed amidst my tender breast; My kisses are his daily feast, And yet he robs me of my rest. Ah, wanton, will ye? What if I beat the wanton boy With many a rod? He will repay me with annoy, Because a god. Then sit thou safely on my knee, And let thy bower my bosom be; Lurk in mine eyes, I like of thee. O Cupid, so thou pity me, Spare not, but play thee! And if I sleep, then percheth he With pretty flight, And makes his pillow of my knee The livelong night. Strike I my lute, he tunes the string; He music plays if so I sing; He lends me every lovely thing; Yet cruel he my heart doth sting. Whist, wanton, still ye!