How to Write a Roundelay Poem

There is some confusion online as to the meaning of the term "roundelay," with some references confusing it with the French "rondelet" and others describing it as any poem with a refrain. Actually, the roundelay, rondelet, rondeau, rondel, and other similar sounding poems all spring from a common French origin, but are all very different in contemporary use. The roundelay's many repeating couplets and limited rhymes can make it a difficult form to write, but as with many successful poems with refrains, can also make for profound or esoteric poetry.

The roundelay consists of four sestets (six-line stanzas) made up of twelve repeating couplets (two-line stanzas, one of which repeats as each stanza's last two lines. The stanzas' couplets A,B,C,D ,E and R (the continuing refrain) combine in the following pattern:

A B R ... B C R ... C D R ... D E R

So, in the second stanza, "B C R" represents six-lines (three couplets), with couplet "B" repeating from the first stanza, couplet "C" repeating in the following stanza, and its last couplet "R" repeating as every stanza's last two lines. In addition, each couplet's first line rhymes with other couplets' first lines and all second lines rhyme with each other as well, making the rhyme scheme:

a-b-a-b-a-b ... a-b-a-b-a-b ... a-b-a-b-a-b ... a-b-a-b-a-b

Remember that in a rhyming pattern, lines ending in a sound designated by "a" only rhyme with other "a" lines, "b" lines only with other "b" lines, and so on.

Trochaic tetrameter (four feet of "DUM-dah" per line, see "Meter") is a requirement, but it is permissible for some of the lines to be one syllable short.

Example:

Cannons Silent

British moving ever shoreward,
ardent plans will soon be blooming.
Soldiers hunkered, never cowered,
even with the battles looming,
cannons silent, pointing eastward,
wait to start their endless booming.

Soldiers hunkered, never cowered,
even with the battles looming,
captain's orders pass on forward,
throes of hunger, still consuming.
Cannons silent, pointing eastward,
wait to start their endless booming.

Captain's orders pass on forward,
throes of hunger, still consuming,
painful groans, a muffled curse word,
doubts about the war's resuming,
cannons silent, pointing eastward,
wait to start their endless booming.

Painful groans, a muffled curse word,
doubts about the war's resuming,
feasting on the peppered game bird,
skillets cleaned but fires fuming,
cannons silent, pointing eastward,
wait to start their endless booming.