triolet

American  

[tree-uh-lay, 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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

triolet

Perhaps a bad triolet every six months, and a book of criticism on something thoroughly threadbare once in five years.

From The Path to Rome by Hilaire Belloc

Wilde himself has left it on record that he "cannot imagine anyone with the smallest pretensions to culture preferring a dexterously turned triolet to a fine imaginative ballad."

From Oscar Wilde by Leonard Cresswell Ingleby

Your baker could the fashion set; Your butcher might respond well; With every tart a triolet, With every chop a rondel.

From Ballads of a Bohemian by Robert W. (Robert William) Service

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

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

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

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

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