53. Flower o' the broom: of the many varieties of folk-songs in
Italy that which furnished Browning with a model for Lippo's songs
is called a stornello. The name is variously derived. Some take it
as merely short for ritornillo; others derive it from a storno, to
sing against each other, because the peasants sing them at their
work, and as one ends a song, another caps it with a fresh one, and
so on. These stornelli consist of three lines. The first usually
contains the name of a flower which sets the rhyme, and is five
syllables long. Then the love theme is told in two lines of eleven
syllables each, agreeing by rhyme, assonance, or repetition with the
first. The first line may be looked upon as a burden set at the
beginning instead of, as is more familiar to us, at the end. There
are also stornelli formed of three lines of eleven syllables without
any burden. Browning has made Lippo's songs of only two lines, but
he has strictly followed the rule of making the first line,
containing the address to the flower, of five syllables. The
Tuscany versions of two of the songs used by Browning are as
follows:
"Flower of the pine! Call me not ever happy heart again, But call
me heavy heart, 0 comrades mine."
"Flower of the broom! Unwed thy mother keeps thee not to lose That
flower from the window of the room."