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Virelai Definition | What is Virelai? - PoetrySoup

Definition

Complex 14th Century French form composed of long and short lines. The long lines of the second stanza take their rhyme from the short lines of the first stanza. This pattern continues  through out the poem until the final stanza - where the short lines take their rhyme from the long lines of the first stanza.

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Definition

Variation on the virelai featuring a double refrain at the start of the poem. These refrain lines are then used alternately at the end of  successive stanzas and then appear together again at the end of the final stanza but in reverse order. An example of a virelai nouveau is July by Dobson.

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