Wiktionary
n. (context historical poetry English) A medieval poetic form consisting of two or more three line units in each stanza, in the form aabaab... and continuing on in that pattern.
Wikipedia
A virelai is a form of medieval French verse used often in poetry and music. It is one of the three formes fixes (the others were the ballade and the rondeau) and was one of the most common verse forms set to music in Europe from the late thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries.
One of the most famous composers of virelai is Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300–1377), who also wrote his own verse; 33 separate compositions in the form survive by him. Other composers of virelai include Jehannot de l'Escurel, one of the earliest (d. 1304), and Guillaume Dufay (c. 1400–1474), one of the latest.
By the mid-15th century, the form had become largely divorced from music, and numerous examples of this form (including the ballade and the rondeau) were written, which were either not intended to be set to music, or for which the music has not survived.
A virelai with only a single stanza is also known as a bergerette.
Usage examples of "virelai".
When she had escaped Virelai on the night of the Gathering, she had not known her own intention.
The Master had never been very interested in food: indeed, he had seemed rather uninterested in most things by the time Virelai had left the island, letting things go to rack and ruin, or even smashing them quite deliberately to pieces.
Most things: but not the Rosa Eldi, a creature Virelai had come to hate in these past few months.
But the Lord of Cantara was still closeted with the girl Virelai had provided for him the previous night: he would not be abroad for an hour or more yet.
There was no love lost between the two of them: Virelai had the strange feeling the cat blamed him for its separation from the Rosa Eldi.
Watching it carefully out of the corner of his eye, Virelai crossed the room and sat down upon his bed to allow the animal to pass unchallenged.
This last the lord uttered in a voice so low and so bland that it clearly was not meant to be any part of their conversation, but Virelai nodded anyway.
Understanding that he was not to burn, at least for the time being, Virelai scrabbled upright.
But even the sight of Virelai attempting to use the magic he has stolen fails to keep his interest for long.
When a sufficient number had materialized in the market square, there seemed to be no further need for magical intervention, since the sight of so many folk gathered in a public place seemed always to draw others merely out of curiosity and Virelai soon discovered he could fill a decent-sized forum within a third of an hour or less.
There was little need for Virelai to add to this volatile mix a charm of coercion, but he found himself doing it anyway: Tycho was not a pleasant man to work for, and it was better to be safe than savaged.
As areas of settlement became more dense on the approach to the Eternal City, Tycho took to performing three times a day, urging the horses to a gallop between towns, which was why Virelai ached as badly as he did.
The last vision that presented itself, before a hail of well-meaning compliments, pats on the back and shaking of hands assailed him and dislodged it in a welter of relative normality, was of the Lord of Cantara beside the tall, pale man called Virelai, in whose arms lay the nomad woman, standing atop a mountain overlooking a plain on which a mighty battle was taking place.
And so she had expected none, and had passed through each successive encounterwith Rahe, and then with the men to whom Virelai sold her on their travelsuntouched by the experience.
Since Virelai had stolen her away from Rahe, since they had left Sanctuary in that tiny boat, with her locked in the oak casket in which the Master used to keep her hidden, she had drifted as if in a dream, taking little notice of the world or the people around her: it was all too confusing, too strange.