Types of Poem Forms - French Triolet Poems

The first born poem child of the Rondeau poetic form, the Triolet (triplet) is believed to first appeared in the late 13^th century. The early Triolet poems were of very serious themes and substance (primarily religious) and strictly adhered to certain rules, such as: There must be only ten syllables to each line. As this form of poetry became more popular the rules for this French poem form changed over time, as most do. Today, the Triolet can be varied in the number of syllables to each line, with eight or six syllables being the most popular. Additionally, the Triolet poem need not be of such serious themes and about a wider variety of topics. Indeed, in today’s modern world this poem form has given way to often humorous subjects.

One of the best parts about learning to write Triolet poems is the fact these poems are short little ditties for those of the more witty mind bend. This is among the easiest French fixed forms of poetry to write.

The rhyme scheme is:

1R, 2R, 1, 1R, 1, 2, 1R, 2R

(Remember: the repeated lines appearing are 1R and 2R).

Additionally each Triolet has:

• Eight line stanza which contain two rhymes and two refrains.
• Five of the eight lines are repeated (refrain) lines.
• The first line repeats repeats at both the fourth and seventh lines.
• The second line repeats at the eighth line.
• Triolets are generally but not always in iambic tetrameter, in which the first syllable in each two-syllable pair is unstressed, and the second stressed.

These days, writers of Triolets often publish them where each identical line is started with being capitalized and each rhyming line begins with either the same lower case letter or capital letter. This variation was never done in the past.

I decided to write a short triolet, opening with the couplet of:

1R There never was an "us" I used to cry

2R Our babies and me still in love with you

That done, I was able to write the fourth, seventh, and eighth lines quite easily, as shown below.

3 xxxxxxxxxxx

4 There never was an "us" I used to cry

5 xxxxxxxxxxx

6 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

7 There never was an "us" I used to cry

8 Our babies and me still in love with you

That left me with only three triolet lines to be written. Once this was done my French triolet poem was easily finished with the following results:

There never was an "us" I used to cry

Our babies and me still in love with you

Gloria told me "I will survive" not die

There never was an "us" I used to cry

So goodbye our marriage we did untie

Pretending forever to begin anew

There never was an "us" I used to cry

Our babies and me still in love with you.

Jerilee Wei © 2011

• Robert Bridges (1844-1930) “Untitled”
• Henry Cuyler Bunner "Triolet"
• Frances Cornford (1886-1960) “To a Fat Lady Seen from the Train”
• Jean Froissart (1337-1404) “Rondel” (a mislabeled title)
• Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) “How Great My Grief”