A Dainty Thing's The Villanelle

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  A DAINTY thing's the Villanelle,
  Sly, musical, a jewel in rhyme,
  It serves its purpose passing well.

  A double-clappered silver bell
  That must be made to clink in chime,
  A dainty thing's the Villanelle;

  And if you wish to flute a spell,
  Or ask a meeting 'neath the lime,
  It serves its purpose passing well.

  You must not ask of it the swell
  Of organs grandiose and sublime--
  A dainty thing's the Villanelle;

  And, filled with sweetness, as a shell
  Is filled with sound, and launched in time,
  It serves its purpose passing well.

  Still fair to see and good to smell
  As in the quaintness of its prime,
  A dainty thing's the Villanelle,
  It serves its purpose passing well.

© William Ernest Henley