The Rondeau Roundup, a blog devoted to rondeaus and related forms, has been silent the past few months. To re-launch the blog, we’re having a contest for the best rondeau on the topic of love, submitted by July 15, 2009.

Contest Rules:

Only one rondeau may be submitted per person. No entry fee. Top three rondeaus will be published on the blog (theroundeauroundup.blogspot.com). The first place rondeau will also receive a $35 gift certificate from Amazon.com

For this contest, we’re looking for rondeaus that follow the standard definition, as given on poets.org: “The rondeau’s form is not difficult to recognize: as it is known and practiced today, it is composed of fifteen lines, eight to ten syllables each, divided stanzaically into a quintet, a quatrain, and a sestet. The rentrement consists of the first few words or the entire first line of the first stanza, and it recurs as the last line of both the second and third stanzas. Two rhymes guide the music of the rondeau, whose rhyme scheme is as follows (R representing the refrain): aabba aabR aabbaR.”

Examples of the form: “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae, “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar.

No other poetic form will be accepted for this contest. Non-rhyming rondeaus can be entered, but the blog moderator’s preference is for rhymed and metered rondeaus.

To enter, send a single rondeau (in the body of an e-mail) on the topic of love to rondeauroundup@gmail.comby July 15, 2009.

Winners will be announced on the Rondeau Roundup Blog on July 31, 2009.