Bref Double

The Bref Double is a fourteen-line French form. It is similar to the sonnet, but it need not be written in iambic pentameter. It contains three quatrains (four-line stanzas) followed by a final couplet.

There is no requirement of meter in a Bref Double, though all lines must be consistent in length It has three rhymes: a, b, and c. It has five lines that are not part of the rhyme scheme. The c rhyme ends each quatrain. The a and b rhymes are found twice each somewhere within the three quatrains and once in the couplet.

To make it a little easier, it can take one of the following forms (where the x's represent lines which do not rhyme with anything else, even the other x's):

abxc abxc xxxc ab

xaxc xbxc xbac ba

xabc xaxc xbxc ab


For my example I chose the first rhyme set.

Inspiration

The Muse has fled the empty mind,
The pen has stilled, the words are gone.
Inspiration is sadly lacking
A creative dark cloud settles in.

What’s the good of writing blind,
When all conclusions are foregone?
How many trees give up their lives
To find the story from within?

Ideas, not so elusive now,
Flirt within the writer’s mind.
With pen and paper set the snare,
Trap the Muse and wear her skin.

The story’s written and refined,
Once again creation’s pawn.