~ The Poet's Place Cafe~

I do hope I did this correctly, I am such a dense poet.




The Rondel, Old French meaning small circle, is a 14th century verse form. It is a member of the Rondeau family of forms but differs from the Rondeau in the number of lines and the pattern of rhyme. The Rondel came to England in the 16th century. Sources indicate the Rondel is better suited to French than English yet Dobson's Wanderer is a fluid lyrical example of why the Rondel is adaptable to English. A variation of the Rondel is the Rondel Prime or French Sonnet. The elements of the Rondel are:
1.a 13 line poem, made up of 2 quatrains followed by a quintain.
2.isosyllabic, often written in 8 syllable lines, but the lines can be any number of syllables as long the measure is consistent throughout the poem.
3.rhymed ABba abAB abbaA, A and B being refrains. In French one rhyme is feminine and one is masculine, it doesn't matter whether the feminine rhyme is the a or the b rhyme.
4.composed with 2 rentrements. L1 is repeated in L7 and L13, L2 is repeated in L8.