Rondeau
The French refrain form: fifteen lines, two rhymes, and a rentrement that keeps coming home.
Specifications & Metrics
- origin
- Medieval France (rondeau and rondeau refrains)
- originator
- Trouvères; Charles d'Orléans perfected it
- meter
- Usually octosyllabic or decasyllabic lines
- lines count
- 15
Core Principles & Analysis
- Fifteen lines on two rhymes with a repeated opening half-line refrain.
- Charles d'Orléans wrote his long Tower captivity in rondeaux.
- Millay's 'Renascence'-era successors kept it alive in English.
Sources