The first of today’s poetic devices from Packard’s The Poet’s Dictionary: A Handbook of Prosody and Poetic Devices is

Rondel:  A simple song, usually in strict stanzaic form (see STANZA), using REFRAIN, RHYME and METER.

Unfortunately, and, some might argue, unforgivably, Packard does not describe the stanzaic form (or rhyme scheme or meter) in any detail.  I, therefore, had to call in the big guns of Thrall, Hibbard and Holman and consult with my centuries-old A Handbook to Literature (see photo) (I really do have to get the updated version – it’s an essential tool).

Here is the only rondel I have ever written.  Thanks for reading!

A Note I Wish My Father Had Left Me
(a rondel)

If I’d let my sober mind go
into the night, I believe I could
close my eyes, relax my jaw, hear God.
If I opened clear eyes as He intoned
I would be able, maybe, to see Him go –
scares me to think I could reach the beyond
if I’d let my sober mind go
into the night. I believe I could
find words to tell you I know
all about being the drunkard’s child –
terrifying, that endless underground drone
of plain, fine, golden words I could tell, be told
if I’d let my sober mind go.
Into the night, I believe I could.

– Suzanne Baldwin Leitner