Bref double is a
French poetic form consisting of 3
quatrain
A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines.
Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Greec ...
s and a final
couplet
A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...
, making 14 lines.
There is some debate about the
rhyme scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other.
An example of the ABAB rh ...
, 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.
[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 (unrhymed lines shown as "X"): 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: AXXB CXXB ACXB AC.
Both sources agree that there is no requirement of meter in a bref double, though all lines must be consistent in length.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bref Double
Poetic forms