RONDEL

        Take care not to confuse this form with the rondeau, from which it differs in two specific ways:
1) the total number of lines, and 2) the use of complete rather than partial lines in the refrain.

The rondel , often a light and playful form, is 13 or 14 lines long, depending on whether a two-line refrain is used at the end, or simply one line.  The rhyme scheme is usually abbaabababbaab.  Lines 1-2, 7-8, and 13-14  are the refrain lines, repeated in their entirety. In a number of French forms,  repetition of rhyme words was not allowed. However, in the example below, that rule is obviously broken.  It's from Lee Ann Russell's helpful handbook, How to Write Poetry (1991).


Vengeance

She had a beer
And burned the town
Till it was brown
From front to rear.

With cold veneer
And haughty frown
She had a beer
and burned the town.

A message clear
To those renown
Who let her down
So cavalier.
She had a beer
And burned the town.

(unknown)