The triolet is a form of rondel that goes back to the thirteenth century, but which was much cultivated under that name in the fourteenth and fifteenth. The triolet rhymes abaaabab, and repeats the first line as the fourth and the seventh lines, and the second line as the last line. Using rhyme notation, it can be diagrammed as:  ABaAabAB

                          Rose kissed me today.
                          Will she kiss me tomorrow?
                          Let it be as it may,
                          Rose kissed me today;
                          But the pleasure soon gives way
                          To a savor of sorrow;
                          Rose kissed me today
                          Will she kiss me tomorrow?
                                                --Austin Dobson

            EASY is the Triolet,
              If you really learn to make it!
            Once a neat refrain you get,
            Easy is the Triolet.
            As you see!--I pay my debt
              With another rhyme. Deuce take it,
            Easy is the Triolet,
              If you really learn to make it!
                                        --William Ernest Henley

            I INTENDED an Ode,
            And it turned to a Sonnet.
            It began à la mode,
            I intended an Ode;
            But Rose cross'd the road
                  In her latest new bonnet;
            I intended an Ode;
                  And it turned to a Sonnet.
                                    --Austin Dobson
 
 

Triolet.

Jenin l'Avenu,                    Jenin l'Avenu
Va-t-en aux estuves;         Go off to the public baths
Et toy la venu,                   And once you are there
Jehin l'Avenu,                    Jenin l'Avenue

Si te lave nud                    Also wash yourself naked
Et te baigne es cuves.        And bathe yourself
Jenin l'Avenu,                    Jenin l'Avenu
Va-t-en aux estuves.         Go off to the public baths.
        --François Villon

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