Villainelle

[simont]

I cannot choose the wine in front of me.
And yet I can't discount a bluffing play:
The wine in front of you it cannot be.

You think I'm stalling, but you must agree
That while I hope your choice you might betray,
I cannot choose the wine in front of me.

You beat my Turk, a fighting prodigy,
So you might trust your strength to save the day.
The wine in front of you it cannot be.

You beat my Spaniard very skilfully.
So you would put the poison far away:
I cannot choose the wine in front of me.

I know the poison comes from oversea.
Its origin enables me to say
The wine in front of you it cannot be.

I switched the glasses when you couldn't see!
Yet, unresolved, the paradox must stay –
I cannot choose the wine in front of me;
The wine in front of you it cannot be.

(With apologies to William Goldman. It randomly occurred to me in the bath that this particular poetic form and piece of dialogue were a strikingly good fit for each other.)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

You've already lost that ultra-strict repetition, though, because the two lines don't match.

Here's what I just threw together:

Choose the wine that sits in front of me?
Not I! But wait. Is this a bluffing play?
The wine in front of you it cannot be.

So now I watch, until some slip I see,
Some betraying glance so that I then may
Choose. The wine that sits in front of me

Is far from you, where poison ought to be.
Still, though, you think you're strong. Would you assay
The wine that sits in front of you? It cannot be

That complex, so I must not, you'll agree,
If I would see the sun go down today,
Choose the wine that sits in front of me.

You've brought this poison over land and sea.
Exotic fare indeed, and so I say
The wine that sits in front of you it cannot be.

This puzzle would stump greater minds than me:
Though doom awaits them if, foolishly, they
Choose the wine that sits in front of me,
The wine in front of you it cannot be!

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, just noticed I rhymed 'me' with itself in the last stanza. Nasty. Sorry about that.

S.

[(Anonymous)]

(And 'be' in the third, but that's less of an issue because of the enjambment. The 'me' lines are both endstopped, which makes it harsh).

S.