Shanelle shows us another form of poetry. Learn how to use the Kryielle in your poems and view examples of this style of poetry.

The Kyrielle is a beautiful, French form of poetry from the medieval times. The Kyrielle got its name from Kyrie, a prayer that has the refraining line Kyrie eleison which means ‘Lord have mercy on us’. This poetic form is made up of four line stanzas, also known as a quatrain. It is a form that relies on a syllable count, a rhyming scheme and a refrain. A refrain is when all the stanzas end with the same line, so to say, the last line of your first stanza will be repeated there after at the end of each of your stanzas.

Ok so now that we know the basics of the form Kyrielle, lets have a look at the syllable count and the rhyming scheme.

The syllable count is eight for each line, as it is the usual syllable count for most French forms of poetry and the rhyming scheme is really up to you, you can have it anyway you want but the most popular and most common go like this:

aabB, ccbB, ddbB or abaB, cbcB, dbdB with the capital B being the refrain or repeated line. 

But as I said before the rhyme scheme can go any way you wish, like for example:

aabZ, ccbZ, ddbZ with the capital Z being the refrain or repeated line. 

Also with the Kyrielle you can have as many stanzas as you like but usually three is classed as the minimum stanza for this poetic form.

This is a great form to express yourself and your ideas for different rhyming schemes, why not try it, it’s fun.

Example:

The sky falls beneath shadowed suns

Merciless clouds become undone

And so the drops begin to fall

In fragments of timeless beauty

Rolling thunder chases the wind

Just like a lover that’s been singed

And lightning flashes, right on call

In fragments of timeless beauty

The storm continues it’s display

And the clouds darken in dismay

But rays of light break through it all

In fragments of timeless beauty