Bref double

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 from sonnets [Turco, Lewis. The Book of Forms, 3rd Edition. UPNE, 2000.] [Lyon, Travis. Forms of Poetry. TeaLemon Publications, 2004. (136-7)] .

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:

axbcxaxcaxabab

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 [http://books.google.com/books?id=au7jdu5WEXsC&pg=PA137&sig=72zdSzgA6MLpqh78e4slUrgJHlk#PPA137,M1] . In Turco's given example the scheme looks like this:

axbcxaxcbxxcab

However, other variants are possible, such as:

axxcbxxcabxcab

Both sources agree that there is no requirement of meter in a bref double, though all lines must be consistent in length.

References