rondelet

Why this word is great

RONDELET — [Noun] A metric verse form modeled after the rondeau, consisting of seven lines in two rhymes, with the first line (in four syllables) repeated as the third and refrain (final line), and each other line having eight syllables. From Middle French rondelet, diminutive of rondel ("little round"), referring to the circular or repeating structure of the verse. Unlike the "rondeau" (a sprawling 15-line dance of repetition) or the "roundelay" (a loose, songlike refrain), the rondelet is a clipped, precise thing—a pocket watch of verse. It is the first raindrop of a storm caught twice in its fall, the same streetlamp flickering at both ends of a midnight walk, or the way a childhood rhyme hums itself unbidden decades later—proof that repetition, in measured doses, is not monotony but meaning.