Rondeau

rondeau

One of several formes fixes (fixed forms) in French lyric poetry and song of the 14th–15th century, later popular with many English poets. The rondeau has only two rhymes (allowing no repetition of rhyme words) and consists of 13 or 15 lines of 8 or 10 syllables divided into three stanzas. The beginning of the first line of the first stanza serves as the refrain of the second and third stanzas.

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rondeau

a poem consisting of 13 or 10 lines with two rhymes and having the opening words of the first line used as an unrhymed refrain

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Rondeau 

a fixed verse form consisting of 15 lines in three stanzas, with a rhyme scheme of aabba, abbR, and aabbaR, in which R is a refrain (often nonrhyming) that repeats the first words of the first line.

In content, most rondeaux were love lyrics. The form originated in French poetry in the late 14th century and flourished from the 16th century through the first half of the 17th. Rondeaux were written by Russian poets during the 18th and early 20th centuries. In the 20th century the rondeau is used as a consciously stylized form (for example, M. Kuzmin’s “Manon Lescaut”).

V. P. BOBROVSKII and M. L. GASPAROV