Kýrie Elé...

Kyrielle: a poetic form (which is why it's getting the treatment on this week's blog), originating in 15th century France out of that country's troubadour tradition. It was written to be sung or declaimed in octosyllabic rhyming couplets, usually paired in four line stanzas. There was no prescribed limit to the number of stanzas. That was determined by the stamina of poet (if extemporised) and audience. And in practice, although eight beats to a line was essential, the end rhymes were not necessarily paired, though the fourth line of each stanza was usually repeated throughout as a refrain.

As has been pointed out by a couple of my fellow bloggers on theme, the root of the word kyrielle lies in Christian liturgy and the prayer known as the Kyrie Eleison, from the Ancient Greek: Κύριε, ἐλέησον (Lord, have mercy...), one of the most repeated phrases in eastern Orthodox and western Catholic litanies in particular.

Early kyrielles are thought to have had mainly religious or spiritual themes, which should come as no great surprise given the root of the word and the hymn-like structure, but over time more secular concepts and concerns, such as courtly love, were introduced into the tradition. Modern kyrielles, it seems, can be about pretty much any damned thing.

Although I've searched doggedly for some early examples of the form, it has not proved a very fruitful undertaking, and most of the samples I tracked down broke nearly every rule of kyrielle composition. Poetry, it's a funny old world, makes you wonder why we bother.😕

However, bother I did, though maybe I shouldn't have, and produced this, mostly to the strict conventions of the structure. It was not easy, believe me. It strikes me it must be hard to produce anything other than rather trite verse within such limited confines. I decided to take a swipe at the bad we do to children... it's a work in progress and it's extensible. I suspect I'm trying to make it do things that it was never designed to do. I may return to the kyrielle, though right now I doubt it.

Bloody Hell, Kyrielle, Boom Boom

Dripping the sweet sacramental 

syrup of evil onto each

innocent tongue, sentimental

addiction in the very young.

Given tablets to pacify

instead of attention leaves them

craving screentime to satisfy

addiction in the very young.

A nation of overweight kids

speaking emoji on mobiles

what kind of future? God forbid

addiction in the very young.

Thanks for reading, S ;-)

Read More

Kyrielle

According to Wiki the name kyrielle derives from the Kýrie, which is part of many Christian liturgies. A traditional kyrielle is written in octosyllabic rhyming couplets....typically, a kyrielle will use the phrase "Lord, have mercy". Which is much what I thought when I saw this as a topic.

About a year ago we had a similar theme to write about, as in Double Dactyls, and in the writing of it I found the result of work done by Robert Lee Brewer, from the Writer’s Digest in 2021. He had found 168 poetic forms and gives examples of everyone. Sometimes making them up himself. An amazing job.

I just checked his results again and the kyrielle is indeed mentioned. I had a look through his list, which does include forms from all over the world, and didn’t recognise 106 of them.

How about ‘Mistress Bradstreet Stanza’ .A John Berryman invention. Who is John Berryman?

So, I suppose I’ll have to get down to it. What is a Kyrielle?

The kyrielle is said to have originated in troubadour poetry, which would place its emergence somewhere between the 11th and 14th centuries.

Specifically, a Kyrielle is a French form of rhyming poetry written in quatrains (a stanza consisting of 4 lines), and each quatrain contains a repeating line or phrase as a refrain (usually appearing as the last line of each stanza). Each line within the poem consists of only eight syllables. There is no limit to the amount of stanzas a Kyrielle may have, but three is considered the accepted minimum.

Some popular rhyming schemes for a Kyrielle are: aabB, ccbB, ddbB, with B being the repeated line, or abaB, cbcB, dbdB.

Mixing up the rhyme scheme is possible for an unusual pattern of: axaZ, bxbZ, cxcZ, dxdZ, etc. with Z being the repeated line.

The rhyme pattern is completely up to the poet.

This is an Oxford English Dictionary view of the form and it is not kind to the Kyrielle: "1. A long rigamarole ex. 1653. Urquhart. Rabelais I. XXII. With him he mumbled all his kirielle and dunsical breborons. 2. A kind of Fr. verse divided into little equal couplets and ending with the same word which serves for the refrain. ex. 1887 Sat. Rev. 3 Dec. 770/1.

Among the verse forms the kyrielle of which we have three specimens, is not a form at all, and ought to have been discarded." But might this be British discrimination against French poetic forms?

I got the above piece of information from a splendid source called The Hypertexts.

Whoever they are then gives a detailed description of how the kyrielle is related to the Kyrie Eleison. This prayer dates back at least to the sixth century, as it was mentioned by Pope Gregory the Great (540-608). The earliest Anglo Saxon or Old English poem with a refrain may be "Wulf and Eadwacer," circa 990. The Kyrie Eleison prayer was being recited in English by 1549, and it appeared in the Book of Common Prayer published in 1552, but oral versions could be considerably older.... More recently, the phrase can be found in the titles of the John Berryman poem "Kyrie Eleison". Who is this John Berryman?

As to an example of this kyrielle form I couldn’t really find anything that appealed so reluctantly I decided that I’d to have a go myself. Of course, you will know that Birmingham’s club song is ‘Keep Right on to the End of the Road’ and I have included a Saint’s name.

Birmingham City Are Promoted

That’s one heck of a good reason
to remember our last season
I’m sure that you’ve heard the good news
we haven’t lost at St Andrews

We don’t care about any Cup
because now we are going up
we drew a few but didn’t lose
we haven’t lost at St Andrews

We have Kept Right on to the End
of the Road, taken every bend
won the league so it’s Up the Blues
we haven’t lost at St Andrews

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.

Read More

Kyrielle

I’d never heard of a Kyrielle. When first trawling online to find out what it was, I discovered not only was it a French form of poetry which I’ll discuss a bit further on, but also it had been the name of an experimental metal band (2007-2010) from Stockholm, Sweden.

This band was formed by guitarist Kaz and joined by four others. They were heavily influenced by the Japanese Kei scene (something else I didn’t know about), a movement in Japan characterised by musicians sporting elaborate and androgynous costumes whilst wearing garish make-up.

Kyrielle (the Swedish metal band)

I was curious about the origins of the band’s name with its possible connection to the poetic form. I searched online to an ever continuing allusiveness of the band’s name origins falling deeper and deeper down a rabbit hole landing onto several sites of baby names, which was interesting, as I had just attended a baby shower.

Kyrielle is a primarily a girl’s name and it is derived from the poetic form written in the French Troubadour tradition that was popular during the Middle Ages. This type of poetry’s name originates from the Old French kiriele, a derivative of the Greek word kyrie, a type of Christian liturgical prayer. Kyrie Eleison translates from Greek to English as Lord, have mercy. Liturgies often repeat lines instilling a message.

The rhyming French Kyrielle is written in quatrains, with each quatrain repeating a line or phrase as a refrain, usually in the last line of the stanza. Each line is octosyllabic and three stanzas are the minimum. One can get creative with the rhyming scheme as long as the last line of each stanza is repeated i.e. aabB, abaB, aaaB, abcB .

I couldn’t find many examples of this poetic form. Some were variants on the structure with lines having more than eight syllables. Also along the way I discovered the Kyrielle Sonnet which consists of three rhyming quatrain stanzas with a non-rhyming couplet, adding another complexity.

Not much more to add on the subject, other than my own attempt at a Kyrielle. Formulating it provided its challenges and the result is a far cry from a traditional Troubadour theme (chivalry and courtly love).

Hear Her Cries

Cut from the heart of Mother’s rock,
loaded onto lorries, each block
destined for palaces and thrones
hauled away, inanimate bones

of Her bought and sold, She succumbs
to exploit, greed and beating drums
at our mercy, She grunts and groans
hauled away, inanimate bones

shout out to walking dead horses
all take stock, these arms racecourses
laid out in murderous war zones
hauled away, inanimate bones.

Thank you for reading.
Kate J

Sources
Britannica, 2025. Kyrielle. https://www.britannica.com/art/kyrielle accessed 4 May.
Last.fm, 2025. Visual Kei. https://www.last.fm/tag/visual+kei/wiki accessed 4 May.
Redmond, P. 2025. Kyrielle Origin and Meaning. https://nameberry.com/b/girl-baby-name-kyrielle accessed 4 May.
Shadow Poetry, 2025. Kyrielle. http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/kyrielle.html accessed 4 May.
Shadow Poetry, 2025. Kyrielle Sonnet. http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/kyriellesonnet.html
For Kyrielle music samples go to: https://www.reverbnation.com/kyriellebbb

Read More