How to Write a Rondeau!

Not too long ago, I took turns diving into new poetic forms to make my poetry collection more diverse. Among those new forms was the Rondeau.

The Rondeau is one of the fixed forms of French poetry. It became popular in the 14th/15th centuries and consists of fourteen lines split up into three stanzas- like this:

• First Stanza: AABBA
• Second Stanza: AABR
• Third Stanza: AABBAR

The R represents the refrain, the first four syllables of the beginning stanza, so choose those words carefully because you will repeat them! Also, consider your end words because you’ll need something that has at least 5–8 rhymes.

One last thing is the meter. A Rondeau uses Iambic Tetrameter, which is 4 beats per line. However, the refrain is in Iambic Diameter, which is 2 beats per line. The meter makes it easy for you to sing your poem or put it to music, so lyrics and emotions are also factors in the poem’s construction.

Now that we have an idea of its creation, here is my first attempt at writing a Rondeau. Enjoy!

Remember When

Remember when we used to dance 
Upon the graves and took a chance 
Sowing what we aim to reap 
Surrounded by the endless sleep 
Beneath the dark, starry expanse 
 
The bones rattled as we pranced 
Lost within our moonlit trance 
Taking an unfettered leap 
Remember when 
 
We dreamed of making our advance 
But got derailed by circumstance 
Hard enough to make us weep 
And the price we paid was steep 
For you gave up on our romance 
          Remember when

To learn more about this versatile poetic form, check out The Writing Cooperative and Encyclopedia Britannica. Then, write your own Rondeau in the comments! I’d love to read them!

Also, if you liked this poem, you can find it and more in my poetry collection: By the Bones!