The Kyrielle is an terta-syllabic (8 syllables per line) French form. This is one of those forms that has a great many possibilities. The only absolute structures that must be followed to qualify a poem as a Kyrielle are:
1. A Kyrielle must have 8 syllables per line
2. It must be written in quatrains (4 lines stanzas)
3. The last line of the first stanza must be the last line of every stanza in the poem.
You can chose to use patterned meters (iambic, trochaic etc...) or to simply use tetra-syllabic lines. You can also mix up the rhyme scheme, as long as the refrain line is not moved or omitted from it's place. The Kyrielle has no specific length but they are at least 3 quatrains long, the number of possible quatrains are endless.
There are various rhyme schemes possible for a Kyrielle. Some are:
1. abaB, abaB, abaB, abaB etc...
2. axaZ, bxbZ, cxcZ, dxdZ etc...
3. aabB, aabB, aabB, aabB etc...
4. abcB, cbdB, dbeB, ebeB etc...
An example of a Kyrielle poem is:
"All things must end, as all begun" by John Howard Payne (no link available)
Rhyming Forms: Kyrielle
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