A poetical form which preserves some trace of its popular origin is the
_pastorela_[15] or pastoral which takes its name from the fact that the
heroine of the piece was always a shepherdess. The conventional opening
is a description by a knight of his meeting with a shepherdess, "the
other day" (_l'autrier_, the word with which the poem usually begins). A
dialogue then follows between the knight and the shepherdess, in which
the former sues for her favours successfully or otherwise. The irony or
sarcasm which enables the shepherdess to hold her own in the encounter
is far removed from the simplicity of popular poetry. The _Leys d'Amors_
mentions other forms of the same genre such as _vaqueira_ (cowherd),
_auqueira_ (goose girl), of which a specimen of the first-named alone
has survived. Of equal interest is the _alba_ or dawn-song, in which the
word _alba_ reappeared as a refrain in each verse; the subject of the
poem is the parting of the lovers at the dawn, the approach of which is
announced by a watchman or by some faithful friend who has undertaken to
guard their meeting-place throughout the night. The counterpart of this
form, the _serena_, does not appear until late in the history of
Provençal lyric poetry; in the _serena_ the lover longs for the [34]
approach of evening, which is to unite him with his beloved.

Other forms of minor importance were the _comjat_ in which a troubadour
bids a lady a final farewell, and the _escondig_ or justification in
which the lover attempts to excuse his behaviour to a lady whose anger
he had aroused. The troubled state of his feelings might find expression
in the _descort_ (discord), in which each stanza showed a change of
metre and melody. The _descort_ of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras is written in
five dialects, one for each stanza, and the last and sixth stanza of the
poem gives two lines to each dialect, which Babel of strange sounds is
intended, he says, to show how entirely his lady's heart has changed