11 French Poetic Forms
Learn how to write various French poetic forms, everything from the bref double to villanelle!
Last week, I shared a list of 10 Japanese poetic forms that I've covered over the years. This week, I'm giving the same treatment to the French poetic forms.
As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I love the French forms, especially the rhymes and refrains. Click on each link below to learn more about each form.
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Play with poetic forms!
Poetic forms are fun poetic games, and this digital guide collects more than 100 poetic forms, including more established poetic forms (like sestinas and sonnets) and newer invented forms (like golden shovels and fibs).
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11 French Poetic Forms
- Bref Double. A French quatorzain.
- Dizain. 10 lines of rhymes.
- Kyrielle. Variable length poem with quatrains.
- Lai. No refrains, but tight rhymes.
- Quatern. Four quatrains.
- Rimas Dissolutas. The poem that rhymes but doesn't.
- Rondeau. 15 lines of rhymes and refrains.
- Rondel. 13-liner with multiple refrains.
- Rondine. Rhymes and refrains (again) in a dozen lines.
- Triolet. 8-liner.
- Villanelle. 19 lines and super fine.
Check these forms out, try them for fun, and let me know which is your favorite in the comments below. Or let me know of French forms I still have yet to cover.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
