"With
strawberries we filled a tray"
A Rondeau
- WITH strawberries we filled a tray,
- And then we drove away, away
- Along the links beside the sea,
- Where wave and wind were light and free,
- And August felt as fresh as May.
- And where the springy turf was gay
- With thyme and balm and many a spray
- Of wild roses, you tempted me
- With strawberries.
- A shadowy sail, silent and gray,
- Stole like a ghost across the bay;
- But none could hear me ask my fee,
- And none could know what came to be.
- Can sweethearts all their thirst allay
- With strawberries?
- William Ernest Henley (1894-1903)
A great admirer of
Thomas Edward Brown headmaster and poet of the
Crypt School William Earnest Henley was an English writer and editor. He was friends with
Robert Louis Stevenson and did much to further the career of British writer
Rudyard Kipling and Irish poet
W.B. Yeats.
Osteomyelitis crippled Henley early in life yet he continued to be remarkably courageous as a spirited and courageous writer.
With Strawberries We Filled A Tray is a delightful little summer poem that shows Henley's clever use of the rondeau form where thirteen lines in three stanzas use the opening words of the first line of the first stanza used as an independent refrain after the second and third stanzas.
Sources:
Public domain text taken from The Poets’ Corner:
http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/wyatt01.html#14
Today's poem, With strawberries we filled a tray:
www.geocities.com/~bblair/000719f.htm
William Ernest Henley:
www.bartleby.com/100/637.html
CST Approved.