Two triolets[1]
Triolet, 1934
Blue as a blossom-cup the sky
Leans over; and the world is still,
Steeped in a drowsy gold. On high
Blue as a blossom- cup, the sky
Leans over, wavering, while I
Gaze in a pool below the hill
Blue as a blossom cup. The sky
Leans over… And the world is still.
Disillusionment
So does she shatter all my dreams
In a swift sentence. Beauty lies
No longer in her hair’s bright gleams.
So does she shatter all my dreams.
Loveliness lives far more, it seems,
In the beholder’s ears than eyes.
So does she shatter all my dreams…
In a swift sentence, Beauty lies.
(1939)
[1] A French form of verse which uses only two rhymes over 8 lines. According to the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, ‘The challenge of the form lies in managing the intricate repetition so that it seems to be natural and inevitable, and in achieving in the repetitions a variety of meaning, or, at least, a shift in emphasis.’