Triolet

A triolet (UK: , US: ) is almost always a stanza poem of eight lines, although stanzas with as few as seven lines and as many as nine or more have appeared in its history. Its rhyme scheme is A B a A a b A B {\displaystyle \mathrm {ABaAabAB} } (capital letters represent lines repeated verbatim). Often in 19th century English triolets, all lines are in iambic tetrameter. In traditional French triolets, from the 17th century onward, the meter is usually octosyllabic (8 syllables per line), with one rhyme masculine and one feminine. Depending on the language and era, other meters are seen. The first, fourth, and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines, thereby making the initial and final couplets identical as well. In a traditional French triolet, the second and third non-repeating lines rhyme with the repeating first, fourth, and seventh lines, while the non-repeating sixth line rhymes with the second and eighth repeating lines. However, especially in German triolets of the 18th and 19th centuries, this pattern is often violated.