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

Once a neat refrain you get, Easy is the triolet.

From The Book of Humorous Verse by Wells, Carolyn

Or perhaps we'd receive a notice from a Southern publisher to this effect: 'Have drawn on you at sight for eight quatrains and a triolet.'

From The Inventions of the Idiot by Bangs, John Kendrick

Love begins like a triolet and ends like a college yell.

From A Book of Burlesques by Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)

Unless your likings I forget, You like the trifling triolet.

From The Scarlet Gown being verses by a St. Andrews Man by Murray, Robert F. (Robert Fuller)

There, were probably in the capital few albums, begun by very young girls and afterwards abandoned, which did not contain a sonnet, or oftener a triolet, beautifully written by Emil Knopf for his dear pupil.

From Villa Eden: The Country-House on the Rhine by Auerbach, Berthold