Verse Forms - the Chaucerian Roundel

The Chaucerian Roundel*

Basic features & history of the verse form:

Number of lines	13
Structure / divisions	Tercet / quatrain / sestet
Rhyme scheme	AB¹B² / abAB¹ / abbAB¹B²
Meter	In English, usually iambic pentameter
Refrain line or lines	Yes — refrain lines are designated by A, B¹ and B²; B¹ and B² rhyme with each other
Time / place of origin	14th-century England (or France — Machaut wrote at least a few roundels of this type)
Medieval / Renaissance poets associated with this form	Guillaume de Machaut, Geoffrey Chaucer
Examples written in English by or before —	14th century (Chaucer)

An example of a roundel:

Yowr Yen Two Wol Slee Me Sodenly
by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400)

(This roundel forms the first section of the triple roundel sometimes entitled Merciles Beaute)

(A) Yowr yen two woll sle me sodenly.
(B¹) I may the beaute of them not sustene
(B²) So wondeth it thorow out my herte kene.
(a) And but your word wol helen hastely
(b) Mi hertis wound while that it is grene
(A) Your yen [two woll sle me sodenly.
(B¹) I may the beaute of them not sustene.]
(a) Vpon my trouth I sey yow feithfully
(b) That ye ben of my liffe and deth the quene,
(b) For with my deth the trouth shalbe sene.
(A) Your yen [two woll sle me sodenly.
(B¹) I may the beaute of them not sustene
(B²) So wondeth it thorow out my herte kene.]

* I have used the term "Chaucerian roundel" to avoid confusion with Swinburne's eleven-line version of the form, which is a 19th-century adaptation with a rhyme scheme of abaR / bab / abaR. Swinburne so successfully highjacked the roundel form that most modern poetic dictionaries use his version to define it; indeed, many sources ignore Chaucer altogether and credit Swinburne with inventing the roundel.

A Brief Guide to Some Medieval and Renaissance Verse Forms