see also Kyrielle

A KYRIELLE SONNET, unlike the kyrielle consists of 14 lines (three rhyming quatrain stanzas and a non-rhyming couplet). However, like the traditional Kyrielle poem, the Kyrielle Sonnet has a repeating line (refrain) as the last line of each stanza.

In addition to the set number of lines within the kyrielle sonnet, each of the 14 lines consists of only eight syllables. French poetry forms have a tendency to link back to the beginning of the poem, so common practice is to use the first and last line of the first quatrain as the ending couplet. This would also re-enforce the refrain within the poem.

Example by Ryter Roethicle:

To Learn To Love

Bodies and minds conditioned by life
Show no emotion, are stoic in strife.
Open my heart before love says goodbye
To learn to love, I must learn to cry

Too long my heart has been asleep
Now through you, I learn to weep
Because of you my spirit is high
To learn to love, I must learn to cry