Rondeau — Poetic form · Learn · Poets of The Household

The rondeau is a French form that took its modern shape in the 14th and 15th centuries — earlier rondeaux were related but structurally distinct. The form that English poets adopted from the 19th century onward (sometimes called the rondeau prime) consists of fifteen lines arranged in three stanzas, with a short refrain — the rentrement — drawn from the opening words of the poem and returning at the end of the second and third stanzas.

The rentrement is the form's most distinctive feature. It is not a full line: it is a short phrase, usually three to five syllables, drawn from the opening words. The opening line of the poem and the rentrement are designed to work as a unit, so that when the rentrement appears at the end of stanzas 2 and 3, it lands as a compressed echo of the poem's opening.

The form's most-cited English example is John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" (1915), written in the trenches during the First World War. Its opening — In Flanders fields the poppies blow — and its rentrement In Flanders fields return through the poem with mounting weight, and the closing line — We shall not sleep, though poppies grow / In Flanders fields — uses the rentrement as the poem's last gesture. McCrae's rondeau is short, formal, and emotionally direct in a way the form supports.

In contemporary English the rondeau is uncommon enough that most readers experience the rentrement as a surprise on its first appearance. The form welcomes any subject; what it asks for is the discipline of a short refrain that means more each pass.

Structure

Three stanzas

The standard English rondeau's structure:

Stanza 1: 5 lines (a quintet)
Stanza 2: 4 lines (a quatrain) + the rentrement
Stanza 3: 6 lines (a sestet) + the rentrement

Some traditions vary slightly (4 + 4 + 5 lines, or other splits), but the 5 + 4 + 6 arrangement with rentrements at the close of stanzas 2 and 3 is the dominant English shape.

Two rhymes

The form uses only two rhyme sounds across its thirteen full lines (excluding the two rentrement appearances). The scheme:

Stanza 1: a a b b a
Stanza 2: a a b R (where R is the rentrement)
Stanza 3: a a b b a R

Slant rhyme is acceptable in English where strict rhyme strains; the form's rhyme-richness assumption is French.

The rentrement

The form's defining element. Three to five syllables drawn from the opening words of the poem. In McCrae's rondeau the opening is In Flanders fields the poppies blow and the rentrement is In Flanders fields — the first three words.

The rentrement is not a full line and does not need to rhyme. It is short enough to land as a compressed echo at the end of stanzas 2 and 3.

Meter

Iambic tetrameter (8 syllables) is the most common English meter for the rondeau; iambic pentameter is also used. The rentrement is metrically shorter — typically 4 to 5 syllables — and its compression against the longer full lines is part of the form's music.

Common pitfalls (not rules)

A rentrement that doesn't feel like it comes from the opening. The rentrement must be drawn from the opening words; an arbitrary short phrase loses the form's point.
Treating the rentrement as a full line. It is shorter, and the form depends on the visible compression.
Strict rhyme in English through thirteen lines on two sounds. Slant rhyme is welcome; the form is structurally demanding enough already.
The opening line not designed to launch the rentrement. The first line and the rentrement work as a unit; if they don't feel kin, the form's most charged returns will feel arbitrary.

Lines from the tradition

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.

Sample Poet

The first two stanzas of McCrae's 1915 rondeau, written from the Western Front. The rentrement (*In Flanders fields*) is drawn from the opening words; its first reappearance at the end of stanza 2 lands with the weight of *We are the Dead* compressed into three short words.

Try this

Write a rondeau on a subject that benefits from compressed return. Pick an opening line whose first three to five words can stand on their own as a rentrement, and let the rentrement land at the end of stanzas 2 and 3 with shifting weight.

Fifteen lines (5 + 4 + 6), two rhymes, scheme aabba aabR aabbaR.

The rentrement must be drawn from the opening words and short — three to five syllables.

The rentrement should mean something different in its two reappearances.

Share your poem

Structure

Three stanzas

Two rhymes

The rentrement

Meter

Common pitfalls (not rules)

Lines from the tradition

Try this

Further reading