triolet

American  

[tree-uh-ley, trahy-uh-lit] / ˌtri əˈleɪ, ˈtraɪ ə lɪt /

noun

1. a short poem of fixed form, having a rhyme scheme of ab, aa, abab, and having the first line repeated as the fourth and seventh lines, and the second line repeated as the eighth.

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triolet British  

/ ˈtriːəʊˌlɛt /

noun

1. a verse form of eight lines, having the first line repeated as the fourth and seventh and the second line as the eighth, rhyming a b a a a b a b

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Etymology

Origin of triolet

1645–55; < French: literally, little trio

Example Sentences

From a newspaper cutting with another very poor comic triolet sent me by G. M. H. They are signed BRAN.

From Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins Now First Published by Bridges, Robert Seymour

Victor the poet, the fashionable Villon, with his ballade, his rondeau, his triolet, his chant-royal!—Victor, who had put his own breast before his at Lens!

From The Grey Cloak by Peirce, Thomas Mitchell

Deuce take it, Easy is the triolet, If you really learn to make it!

From The Book of Humorous Verse by Wells, Carolyn

The ballade, rondeau and triolet are favorite expressions of this style of verse, for in general its writers seek difficult stanza forms with rhymes natural but never hackneyed.

From Rhymes and Meters A Practical Manual for Versifiers by Winslow, Horatio

The triolet seems simple enough, and, for that matter, a certain kind of triolet can be written by the ream.

From Rhymes and Meters A Practical Manual for Versifiers by Winslow, Horatio