Rondeau
or RONDO, a kind of poetry which returns, as it were, to the same point, or in which part is repeated, thus containing a refrain. In French poetry, the rondeau is a little composition of 13 verses, divided into three un- equal strophes, with two rhymes (five lines masculine and five feminine, or vice versa). The first two or three words of the first verse serve as the burden, and recur in that shape after the 8th and 13th verses. There are also double rondeaux and single rondeaux; the latter an obsolete but easier kind of verse. In music, a light form of composition, in which the subject or theme returns frequently; it usually forms the last movement of a symphony or sonata.