Rondeau (Fr.), a form of poem characterised by closely-knit rhymes and a refrain, and, as defined in the 17th century, consisting of thirteen lines, divided into three unequal strophes; the two or three first words of the first line serve as the burden, and recur after the eighth and thirteenth lines. It has been brought into vogue by Swinburne.
Rondeau
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 8: Peasant to Eoumelia, p. 796
Source scan(s): p. 0809