Rime couée is a tail-rhyme stanza in which a short line follows a longer line, and the short line later returns to rhyme with another short line. The pattern creates a noticeable pause or "tail" at the end of the stanza, often giving the verse a songlike, ballad-like movement.
The term is most often used for medieval French and related stanza forms, though the basic idea can be seen in any poem that combines long lines with a recurring short rhyme line.
Example
The fields were dark with rain before the dawn,
The road ran on like smoke across the hill;
I kept my lantern burning through the storm,
A small warm star to steady me until
The day broke clear.
The crows rose up, then settled in the corn,
And every wet leaf shone along the lane;
I heard the gate sigh open with the wind,
Then close again.
I came at last where silver water lay,
And all the frozen light began to stir;
The world looked new beneath the first pale sun,
As if it were
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