Two stanzas of four lines each, making eight in all, and the line length is negotiable. So what puts the tri in triolet?
Rain falls on the just And the unjust too. It hates to, but must – Rain falls on the just. The unjust have sussed: Whatever they do, Rain falls on the just And the unjust too.
The opening line appears three times, that's what - it comes back as lines 4 and 7. The second line is repeated as the last line. And the rhyming scheme is abaa abab.
To eat a single Weetabick Is something very few can do. It is a rare and special trick, To eat a single Weetabick.
A third's too much; most people stick With satisfaction at just two. To eat a single Weetabick Is something very few can do.
Many surfers who reached this page will really have wanted this poem (a humble quatrain, but brilliant) by (1835-1894):
The rain it raineth on the just And also on the unjust fella: But chiefly on the just, because The unjust steals the just's umbrella.
You don't see triolets very often. There's one by called The Guest Speaker in her book First of the Last Chances. wrote one called How great my grief.
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This page last updated 14/06/2007