Perhaps one day you, too, will be compelled (yea!) to write a rondeau poem. But what if your knowledge of the rondeau form starts (and stops) at the edge of John McCrae’s In Flanders Fields or is mostly hidden within Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s We Wear the Mask? Where will you start?
You could start with that compulsion, like some people we know, or you could find some freedom in the structure of form poetry. And if you like numbers, we can break it down for you like this:
15 lines
of 8-10 syllables
in 3 stanzas, including a quintet (5 lines), a quatrain (4 lines) and a sestet (6 lines)
with 1 refrain (or rentrement) comprised of the first few words or the whole first line
and 2 rhymes
Use our fun How to Write a Rondeau Infographic as a guide!
(Click image to view larger)
Download a printable PDF version of our How to Write a Rondeau Infographic
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Post and infographic by LW Lindquist.
How to Write a Poem uses images like the buzz, the switch, the wave—from the Billy Collins poem “Introduction to Poetry”—to guide writers into new ways of writing poems. Excellent teaching tool. Anthology and prompts included.
“How to Write a Poem is a classroom must-have.”
—Callie Feyen, English Teacher, Maryland
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Sandra Heska King says
I could have used this on that last dare… 🙂
Laura (L.L.) Barkat says
The compulsion part? 😉
Sandra Heska King says
Ha… I don’t seem to have a lot of trouble with that. Unless it’s procrastination. Isn’t that a form of of compulsion? Anyway… writing a rondeau was part of the assignment. That was for the Darwish dare. Has there been one since? I’ve lost count. I’m such a daredevil.
Laura (L.L.) Barkat says
There can be one in the future. Once a person gets settled and out of the drywall dust 😉
Sandra Heska King says
That’s a deal of a dare.
Bethany R. says
Your infographics rock, LW. Love the combination of meaty enrichment, and colorful fun. It makes attempting a new form less intimidating.