Yowr Yen Two Wol Slee Me Sodenly
by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400)

(This roundel forms the first section of the triple roundel sometimes entitled Merciles Beaute)

  1  (A)   Yowr yen two woll sle me sodenly.
  2  (B¹)  I may the beaute of them not sustene
  3  (B²)  So wondeth it thorow out my herte kene.
  4  (a)    And but your word wol helen hastely
  5  (b)    Mi hertis wound while that it is grene
  6  (A)   Your yen [two woll sle me sodenly.
  7  (B¹)  I may the beaute of them not sustene.]
  8  (a)    Vpon my trouth I sey yow feithfully
  9  (b)    That ye ben of my liffe and deth the quene,
10  (b)    For with my deth the trouth shalbe sene.
11  (A)    Your yen [two woll sle me sodenly.
12  (B¹)  I may the beaute of them not sustene
13  (B²)  So wondeth it thorow out my herte kene.]

* I have used the term "Chaucerian roundel" to avoid confusion with Swinburne's eleven-line version of the form, which is a 19th-century adaptation with a rhyme scheme of abaR / bab / abaR. Swinburne so successfully highjacked the roundel form that most modern poetic dictionaries use his version to define it; indeed, many sources ignore Chaucer altogether and credit Swinburne with inventing the roundel.