Formal Properties of "Ma Mignonne" 4 The piece's a poem. 8 It has a title, "A Une Damoyselle Malade" 8 The title isn't a line from the poem. 7 In each line, the final syllable's accented 8 Each line of the poem's got three syllables. 5 The opening line is alliterative 7 The first and last lines are identical. 10 The poem's meter's the natural rhythm if read as prose 10 The poem is perfectly valid grammatically if read as prose. 10 The lines rhyme thusly: AA,BB,CC,DD,...,MM,AA 10 No rhyme sound is repeated save the initial and final. 5 Rhyming sounds are spelled identically 11 The first line's acronym is a reference to the rhyme scheme. 12 "A Une Damoyselle Malade" has the same line count as this poem 12 "A Une Damoyselle Malade" has one-quarter the words of this poem. 8 It's composed in French that's 500 years old 11 Meaning is grouped in couplets out of phase with the rhymes. 9 All odd numbered lines have punctuation at the end 10 No even numbered lines but the last end in punctuation. 8 There's five trisyllabic words on their own lines 11 There is almost no internal punctuation. No nose and no jazz. 5 Four couplets have bisyllabic rhymes 6 There's 12 bisyllabic rhyming (final) words. 12 Four letters do not appear in the poem, including 'w' and 'y' 8 Only pronouns and articles appear more than once. 6 The poet names himself midway through 11 The form of address goes from respectful to familiar midway through. 4 It's light in tone.