Rondeau family

The rondelet has seven lines; its first line reappears as the third line and also as the final one. The rhyme pattern, with a capital A signifying the repeated refrain, is AbAabbA.

The rondel has fourteen lines. It's rhyme pattern, with capital letters signifying lines repeated verbatim, is ABba abAB abba AB. A thirteen-line version, omitting the final B line, is also practiced.

The most popular of these forms in English is the rondeau, demonstrated in the Joyce La Mers poem below. The rondeau redoublé is demonstrated by Wendy Cope.

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The Trouble with Personal Experience Writing by Joyce La Mers I'd rather wait to see how it will end before I write my memoirs. Why pretend the party's over, all the races run? It seems to me I've only just begun. Must all my future triumphs go unpenned? A life peaks once and then it must descend, I realize, but peaks and valleys blend, and how can I be sure that I am done? I'd rather wait. Teasing that final curtain, I'll defend procrastination's hoped-for dividend, a really racy scandal that will stun with juicy secrets! So far, there's not one confession I could make that would offend-- I'd rather wait! back to forms menu

Rondeau Redoublé by Wendy Cope There are so many kinds of awful men-- One can't avoid them all. She often said She'd never make the same mistake again; She always made a new mistake instead. The chinless type who made her feel ill-bred; The practised charmer, less than charming when He talked about the wife and kids and fled-- There are so many kinds of awful men. The half-crazed hippy, deeply into Zen, Whose cryptic homilies she came to dread; The fervent youth who worshipped Tony Benn-- 'One can't avoid them all,' she often said. The ageing banker, rich and overfed, Who held forth on the dollar and then yen-- Though there were many more mistakes ahead, She'd never make the same mistake again. The budding poet, scribbling in his den Odes not to her but to his pussy, Fred; The drunk who fell asleep at nine or ten-- She always made a new mistake instead. And so the gambler was at least unwed And didn't preach or sneer or wield a pen Or hoard his wealth or take the Scotch to bed. She'd lived and learned and lived and learned but then There are so many kinds. back to forms menu

"The Trouble with Personal Experience Writing" © 2002 Joyce La Mers, from Light Quarterly;
"Rondeau Redoublé" © 1986 Wendy Cope, from Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis; by permission of Faber and Faber UK.
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