In Act 3, Scene 2, Rosalind discovers Orlando’s love poetry tacked to the trees in the forest. The poem itself is a humorous parody of the sentimental love poetry of the era:
From the east to western Ind
No jewel is like Rosalind.
Her worth being mounted on the wind,
Through all the world bears Rosalind.
All the pictures fairest lined
Are but black to Rosalind.
Let no face be kept in mind
But the fair of Rosalind.
Orlando is a good man, but a poor poet. His rhyme scheme here is simple to the point of being silly, not unlike a nursery rhyme (abab). Also, it requires a different pronunciation of Rosalind’s name in the first half and the second in order to work (“mined” and “lined” both have a long -i, while “wind” and “Ind” share a short vowel).
While there is no obvious, immediate model for this poem, it can be safely said that Shakespeare is making fun of the tropes of love poetry at large. The imagery in Orlando's poem is cliche and uninteresting, comparing Rosalind to a jewel and a beautiful painting. This is interesting when one considers that Orlando genuinely loves Rosalind. His feelings are real, but his words don’t spring from his feelings; his language is totally borrowed. That contrast, and the triteness of the poem, are what makes the scene so funny, and what Shakespeare is parodying and critiquing here. The audience laughs at Orlando because he has brought the expression of his feelings into conformity with the most uninspired, uninteresting ideas about love, rather than trying to put it in his own words. He doesn’t really understand love at all at this point in the play (though Rosalind, as “Ganymede,” will later go about teaching him), so he must lean on existing expressions and conventions.
