Dictionary:
ron·del (rŏn'dəl, rŏn-dĕl')  |
[Middle English, from Old French, diminutive of ronde, circle, round. See round1.]
| Literary Dictionary: rondel |
rondel, a medieval French verse form related to the triolet and the rondeau. In its usual modern form, it is a 13‐line poem using only two rhymes in its three stanzas. It employs a two‐line refrain which opens the poem and recurs at lines 7 and 8, the first line (or, in a 14‐line variant, both opening lines) also completing the poem. The rhyme scheme—with the repeated lines given in capitals—is thus ABba abAB abbaA (B). There is no fixed metre. This form was adopted by some poets in England in the late 19th century, including Austin Dobson and W. E. Henley.
| Architecture and Landscaping: rondel |
1. Circular window-opening (i.e.
2.
3. Tower circular on plan.
| Poetry Glossary: Rondel |
A variation of the rondeau in which the first two lines of the first stanza are repeated as the last two lines of the second and third stanzas, thus a rhyme scheme of ABba abAB abbaA(B). (Sometimes only the first line of the poem is repeated at the end.)
| Wikipedia: Rondel (poem) |
A rondel is a verse form originating in French lyrical poetry, later used in the verse of other languages as well, such as English and Romanian. It is a variation of the rondeau consisting of two quatrains followed by a quintet (13 lines total) or a sestet (14 lines total). The rondel was invented in the 14th century, and is arguably better suited to the French language than to English.
(Not to be confused with Roundel, a similar verse form with repeating refrain.)
The first two lines of the first stanza are refrains, repeating as the last two lines of the second stanza and the third stanza. (Alternately, only the first line is repeated at the end of the final stanza). For instance, if A and B are the refrains, a rondel will have a rhyme scheme of ABba abAB abbaA
The meter is open, but typically has eight syllables.
There are several variations of the rondel, and some inconsistencies. For example, sometimes only the first line of the poem is repeated at the end; or: the second refrain may return at the end of last stanza, making a Rondel Prime (aka, Rondel Supreme or French Sonnet). Henry Austin Dobson provides the following example of a rondel prime:
Love comes back to his vacant dwelling,
The old, old Love that we knew of yore!
We see him stand by the open door,
With his great eyes sad, and his bosom swelling.
He makes as though in our arms repelling
He fain would lie as he lay before;
Love comes back to his vacant dwelling,
The old, old Love that we knew of yore!
Ah ! who shall help us from over-spelling
That sweet, forgotten, forbidden lore?
E'en as we doubt, in our hearts once more,
With a rush of tears to our eyelids welling,
Love comes back to his vacant dwelling,
The old, old Love that we knew of yore!
Rondel of Merciless Beauty, a rondel in variant form by Geoffrey Chaucer
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Architecture and Landscaping. A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Copyright © 1999, 2006 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Poetry Glossary. Copyright © 2007, ILOVEPOETRY, Inc, All Rights Reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Rondel (poem)". Read more |
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