Dictionary Definition
envoi n : a brief stanza concluding certain forms
of poetry [syn: envoy]
Extensive Definition
In poetry, an envoi is a short
stanza at the end of a
poem used either to address
an imagined or actual person or to comment on the preceding body of
the poem.
Form
The envoi is relatively fluid in form, depending on the overall form of the poem and the needs and wishes of the poet. In general, envois have fewer lines than the main stanzas of the poem. They also repeat the rhyme words or sounds used in the main body of the poem. For example, the chant royal consists of five eleven-line stanzas with a rhyme scheme a-b-a-b-c-c-d-d-e-d-E and a five-line envoi rhyming d-d-e-d-E.Early Use
The envoi first appears in the songs of the medieval trouvères and troubadours; they developed as addresses to the poet's beloved or to a friend or patron. As such, the envoi can be viewed as standing apart from the poem itself and expresses the poet's hope that the poem may bring them some benefit (the beloved's favours, increased patronage, and so on).Development
In the 14th century French poetry was tending to move away from song and towards written text. The two main forms used in this new literary poetry were the ballade, which employed a refrain at first but evolved to include an envoi and the chant royal, which used an envoi from the beginning.The main exponents of these forms were Christine
de Pizan and
Charles d'Orléans. In the work of these poets, the nature of
the envoi changed significantly. They occasionally retained the
invocation of the Prince or to abstract entities such as Hope or
Love as a cypher for an
authority figure the protagonists(s) of the poem could appeal to,
or, in the some poems by d'Orléans, to address actual royalty.
However, more frequently in the works of these poets the envoi
served as a commentary on the preceding stanzas, either reinforcing
or ironically undercutting the message of the poem.
Jean
Froissart, in his adaptation of the troubadour pastourelle genre to the chant royal form also
employed the envoi. His use, however, is less innovative than that
of de Pizan or d'Orléans. Froissart's envoi are invariably
addressed to the Prince and are used to summarise the content of
the preceding stanzas.
Since the 14th century, the envoi has been seen
as an integral part of a number of traditional poetic forms,
including, in addition to the ballade and chant royal, the virelai
nouveau and the sestina. In English, poems with
envoi have been written by poets as diverse as Austin
Dobson, Algernon
Charles Swinburne and Ezra Pound. G
K Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc went through a period of adding
envoi to their humorous and satirical poems.
Two Examples
- On a Fan
- That Belonged to the Marquise De Pompadour
- Austin Dobson (1840-1921)
- CHICKEN-SKIN, delicate, white,
- Painted by Carlo Vanloo,
- Loves in a riot of light,
- Roses and vaporous blue;
- Hark to the dainty frou-frou!
- Picture above, if you can,
- Eyes that could melt as the dew,–
- This was the Pompadour's fan!
- Painted by Carlo Vanloo,
- See how they rise at the sight,
- Thronging the œil de Bœuf through,
- Courtiers as butterflies bright,
- Beauties that Fragonard drew,
- Talon-rouge, falbala, queue,
- Cardinal, Duke, –to a man,
- Eager to sigh or to sue,–
- This was the Pompadour's fan!
- Thronging the œil de Bœuf through,
- Ah, but things more than polite
- Hung on this toy, voyez-vous!
- Matters of state and of might,
- Things that great ministers do;
- Things that, may be, overthrew
- Those in whose brains they began;
- Here was the sign and the cue,–
- This was the Pompadour's fan!
- Hung on this toy, voyez-vous!
- ENVOI
- Where are the secrets it knew?
- Weavings of plot and of plan?
- –But where is the Pompadour, too?
- This was the Pompadour's Fan!
- Where are the secrets it knew?
- The gallows in my garden, people say,
- Is new and neat and adequately tall;
- I tie the noose on in a knowing way
- As one that knots his necktie for a ball;
- But just as all the neighbours--on the wall--
- Are drawing a long breath to shout "Hurray!"
- The strangest whim has seized me. . . . After all
- I think I will not hang myself to-day.
- Is new and neat and adequately tall;
- To-morrow is the time I get my pay--
- My uncle's sword is hanging in the hall--
- I see a little cloud all pink and grey--
- Perhaps the rector's mother will not call--
- I fancy that I heard from Mr. Gall
- That mushrooms could be cooked another way--
- I never read the works of Juvenal--
- I think I will not hang myself to-day.
- My uncle's sword is hanging in the hall--
- The world will have another washing-day;
- The decadents decay; the pedants pall;
- And H.G. Wells has found that children play,
- And Bernard Shaw discovered that they squall,
- Rationalists are growing rational--
- And through thick woods one finds a stream astray
- So secret that the very sky seems small--
- I think I will not hang myself to-day.
- The decadents decay; the pedants pall;
- ENVOI
- Prince, I can hear the trumpet of Germinal,
- The tumbrils toiling up the terrible way;
- Even to-day your royal head may fall,
- I think I will not hang myself to-day.
- Prince, I can hear the trumpet of Germinal,
- G. K. Chesterton
External links
envoi in Spanish: Tornada
envoi in French: Envoi
envoi in Italian: Envoi
envoi in Japanese: アンヴォワ
envoi in Polish: Tornada
envoi in Russian: Envoi
envoi in Walloon: strofe di
dicåçtaedje