Rondel

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A poetic structure that is typically circular in nature while employing refrains and a designated rhyme scheme
2. This form of verse usually involves 13 lines, organized in a specific manner to enhance lyrical quality
3. A structured poem characterized by repeated lines and a set rhyme pattern ; a rounded shape often associated with objects like medallions or ornamental designs

Etymology: The rondel is a poem built on a tight wheel of repetition: fourteen lines, only two rhymes, and two refrains that come back again and again. The name points straight at that shape. It descends from Old French "rondel," a little "ronde," the feminine form of an adjective meaning round in shape, which traces back to Latin "rotundus," round or spherical. That Latin adjective is itself tied to "rota," the wheel, so the word's ancestry is literally a set of rolling circles. English borrowed the term in Middle English, and the form it names is the same circle drawn in verse. Medieval French poets who wrote these pieces treated the refrains as spokes returning to the hub, so the poem's round structure and its round name arrived together. The diminutive ending is the only real change: it marks the small, compact version of the broader "rond" family of circular forms.