Rime Couée

[Tinker]

Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry
French Verse

Rime Couée is a tail-rhymed verse form of 12th century Provencal troubadours. Though it originated in France, it is thought to be the predecessor of the more popular Scot form, the Burns Stanza.

The elements of Rime Couée are:

1. stanzaic, written in any number of sixains, each made up of two tercets.
2. accentual, folk meter of normal speech. L1,L2, L4, L5 are longer lines of a similar length, L3 and L6 are shorter lines of the same length.
3. rhymed, rhyme scheme aabccb, ddeffe etc.

   Press Conference by Judi Van Gorder
   
   Reluctant words stuttered through thin lips,
   halting syllables prepared to eclipse,
   diverting the blame.
   A simple "I'm sorry", would have sufficed,
   For him those words are too high priced,
   skirting the shame.