One of several formes fixes (fixed forms) in French lyric poetry and song of the 14th–15th century, later popular with many English poets.
The rondeau has only two rhymes (allowing no repetition of rhyme words) and consists of 13 or 15 lines of 8 or 10 syllables divided into three stanzas. The beginning of the first line of the first stanza serves as the refrain of the second and third stanzas.