Villonaud for This Yule
Villonaud for This Yule - form Summary
Refrain Binds Memory and Loss
Pound sets this poem as a villanelle whose repeating lines and refrains create a ritual of recollection around Christmas. The recurring refrain Wineing the ghosts of yester-year
and parenthetical asides act like a chorus, binding images of winter, lost loves, and seasonal drinking into a circular meditation. The fixed form heightens the sense of repetition, nostalgia, and an inability to move beyond memory into renewal.
Towards the Noel that morte saison (Christ make the shepherds' homage dear!) Then when the grey wolves everychone Drink of the winds their chill small-beer And lap o' the snows food's gueredon Then makyth my heart his yule-tide cheer (Skoal! with the dregs if the clear be gone!) Wineing the ghosts of yester-year. Ask ye what ghost I dream upon? (What of the magians' scented gear?) The ghosts of dead loves everyone That make the stark winds reek with fear Lest love return with the foison sun And slay the memories that me cheer (Such as I drink to mine fashion) Wineing the ghosts of yester-year. Where are the joys my heart had won? (Saturn and Mars to Zeus drawn near!) Where are athe lips mine lay upon, Aye! where are the glances feat and clear That bade my heart his valor don? I skoal to the eyes as grey-blown meer (Who knows whose was that paragon?) Wineing the ghosts of yester-year. Prince: ask me not what I have done Nor what God hath that can me cheer But ye ask first where the winds are gone Wineing the ghosts of yester-year.
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