A rondelet is a short poem with strict rhyme and meter, originating from the longer rondeau. It consists of one stanza with seven lines, with the first, third, and seventh lines repeating the same words as a refrain. The rhyme structure is based on two repeated rhymes, A and B. Rondels were often set to music in medieval poetry.
A rondelet, also called a roundelay, is a type of short poem with strict rhyme and a metrical structure. It comes from a longer type of poem called a rondeau. The name “rondelet” is a diminutive of “rondeau” and means “small round”. This type of short poem is common in later medieval poetry, particularly in France.
In a washer, the whole poem consists of only one stanza. This stanza contains seven verses. In most cases, four of the lines are eight syllables, but the first, third and seventh lines are only four syllables long. This syllabic structure is common in this type of poetry, but not universal; some examples contain eight syllables in each line. Some five-line poems may be called rondelles, but the seven-line structure is, strictly speaking, the correct one.
The first, third and seventh lines of the poem not only have the same small number of syllables, but contain exactly the same words. This type of line repeated throughout the poem is called a refrain. It is a characteristic trait of the rondo and also appears, in somewhat different form, in the rondo, where it appears at the end of the stanzas. While the words of the refrain are always the same, some refrains vary in punctuation or other features in order to change the meaning of the line at different points in the poem.
The rhyme structure of this form of poetry is based on a simple pattern of just two repeated rhymes. In keeping with poetic convention, these are known as A and B. The first, third, fourth and seventh lines use the A rhyme, while the second, fifth and sixth lines use the B rhyme. Although more verses use rhyme A than B, three of which are the repeated refrain. The short but complicated rhyme and metric structure of the rondel is best demonstrated using an example.
the washer
it is certainly a complicated shape.
the washer
it is written a certain way
and if you don’t follow the norm
you will find that you do not perform
the washer.
In medieval poetry, rondels were often set to music. This may explain the variant spelling “roundelay”, since “lay” usually refers to a poem intended to be sung. In the French original, however, this meaning is not present. The similarity in the pronunciation of “lay” and “-let” is coincidental.
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