Poetic Forms - Rondeau

The rondeau is a form of French poetry that was a verse form commonly set to music in the 14^th and 15^th centuries. Now an English language form, a rondeau makes use of an interesting refrain pattern that is frequently regarded as a challenge, using the refrains to make the poem as poignant as possible. Because of its lyrical origins, a rondeau most often uses a classic meter, like iambic tetrameter (see "Poetic Meter").

Perhaps the best-known rondeau is the war memorial poem, "In Flanders Fields," by Canadian poet John McCrae (1872-1918).

The rondeau consists of fifteen lines, typically of eight syllables each, that includes two refrains, both of which are the first half of the poem's first line. A refrain is a line that is repeated one or more times in a poem. There are only three rhymes and three stanzas, including the half-line refrains:
a (includes refrain c)
a
b
b
a

a
a
b
Refrain c

a
a
b
b
a
Refrain c

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.

Example:

A Farmer's Life

A farmer's life is far from rich--
no riding crop or muzzled twitch.
He can't be cowered in debate,
his hardened life a useful trait
to spurn a stubborn sales pitch.

He tills an irrigation ditch,
steps back and throws its dampened switch.
How much the socialites would hate
a farmer's life.

With horses gathered to unhitch,
he leads them, thinking of his niche,
how nights are free to contemplate
the land and crops of his estate,
and how his loving wife bewitched
a farmer's life.