virelai
nounUK /ˈvɪɹəleɪ/
Etymology From Old French virelai, alteration (after lai) of vireli.
1
Communications, Journalism, Literature, Media, Poetry, Publishing, Writing Historical A medieval poetic form consisting of two or more three line units in each stanza, with the rhyme scheme AABAAB.
- Now making layes of loue and louers paine, Bransles, Ballads, virelayes, and verses vaine [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll Scrawled over on some boyish holiday With idle songs for pipe and virelay, Which do but mar the secret of the whole.1881, Oscar Wilde, Hélas!: