Kyrielle: a French poetic form

The kyrielle is a French four-line poetic form with a refrain. Learn more here.

The kyrielle is a French four-line stanza form that has a refrain in the fourth line. Often, there is a rhyme scheme in the poem consisting of the following possibilities:

  • aabb
  • abab
  • aaab
  • abcb

The poem can be as long as you wish and as short as two stanzas (otherwise, the refrain is not really a refrain, is it?), and, as with many French forms, it is very nice for stretching your poetic muscles.

Also, tres importante! Your lines must contain 8 syllables. I've written an example below to show how this poem works (on a technical level).

"She's not a Pretty Singer"

Evening cell phone conversation--
he rakes his hair with long fingers
that were once filled with devotion,
though she's not a pretty singer.

He never was a man to say,
"baby," or let his eyes linger,
and she only likes boys who stay,
but she's not a pretty singer.

So he offered his warm coat to
another to start a fling her
aging looks could never undo,
and she's not a pretty singer.

Some say she moved to another
state and made her name selling or
buying something, though why bother
when she's not a pretty singer?

*****

Here are some other resources on the kyrielle form:

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.