The Rondine is another much-neglected French form. A repeating form, it is quite challenging to the poet, consisting of two stanzas, a septet (7 lines), and a quintet (5 lines). The refrain in which the last line of both stanzas mimics the first phrase of the first line (R). There is no specified meter.
The rhyme scheme is as follows:
RabbaabR abbaR
Example
Rondine of the Rare Device (if you can kiss the mistress never kiss the maid) by Wesli Court
The maid will do if you’re not ambitious-
Why split the stalk if twigs will make the besom?
Why kill the roots if one may steal the blossom?
The garden is a plot of sundry pleasures
Filled with winding paths and rare devices,
Here a fountain, there a Grecian column-
The maid will do
Rose O’Morning winds upon the trellis
All hips and nettle snags and lures at random.
Is desire the better part of wisdom?
Brown-eyed Susan smiles from her bed of grasses-
The maid will do
Jezzie G 