Bref double is a French poetic form consisting of 3 quatrains and a final couplet, making 14 lines.
There is some debate about the rhyme scheme, though in all versions the scheme consists of three rhymes and 4-5 un-rhymed lines, providing the bref double’s primary distinction from sonnets.
According to Lyon, the bref double has a single form with a fixed rhyme scheme and, most distinctively, only the first two quatrains share a final rhyme:
AxBC
xAxC
AxAB
AB
According to Turco, the bref double does have three rhymes, but the scheme is such that the first two of must appear twice in the first three quatrains—all of which end with the third rhyme, with five unrhymed lines. In Turco’s given example the scheme looks like this:
AxBC
xAxC
BxxC
AB
However, other variants are possible, such as:
AxxC
BxxC
ABxC
AB
Both sources agree that there is no requirement of meter in a bref double, though all lines must be consistent in length.
(Bref-double-style poem)
Comments about this post on ABC Opern DRUM – Living alone.
When the night covers the city with a dark shroud,
There was a frightened girl on an empty platform,
She is running away from her loneliness,
Yet it seems loneliness is coming to her. But wait there’s more!
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