Kyrielle: A Cousin to the Kyrie

Kyrielle, from the French, is a type of poem.  A Kyrie is a type of Christian liturgy with the same attributes as a Kyrielle.  The Kyrielle has 8 syllables in each line.  Each stanza consists of four lines, ending with a refrain.  The poem demonstrates the rhythmical form of a couplet.  Generally, Kyrielle poems include a minimum of three stanzas.  The rhyming scheme is as follows:

aabB
ccbB
ddbB
eebB

The capital B represents the refrain repeated in each stanza.

Thomas Campion's A Lenten Hymn is an example of a Kyrielle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrielle).  Where Once We Played is a modern example:

Across our childhood street we trod

on carpet lawn and hold sod.

We walked along where some had prayed.

Where once we played, he now is laid.

The dead's abodes we visited.

But times we ran and sometimes hid.

Such escapes by fancy made!

Where once we played, he now is laid.

Our bikes we'd ride on many a track

That wound around and further back.

A decade near this place I stayed.

Where once we played, he now is laid.

He left.  We followed, each our way

until the fateful sorry day.

We all returned and farewells bade.

Where once we played, he now is laid.

Another decade passed, then two.

Cruel time, it's passing now I rue.

My place for his, I would not trade

Where once we played, he now is laid.

*Dedicated to my brother Dale, who died much too young and is buried across the street from our old family house in a place called the Greenwood Cemetery where kids rode bikes and played.

http://www.louisbergergroup.com/OurProjects/North%20America/Knights-of-Pythias