A Triolet

A Triolet - form Summary

Repetition as Satire

Paterson adopts the strict triolet form—short lines with repeated refrains and a tight rhyme scheme—to lampoon that very structure. The poem’s recurring lines and circular closure both mimic and mock the triolet’s constraints, turning formal repetition into comic criticism. Its pared-down diction and self-referential complaints expose how the form can feel trivial, so the poem becomes a humorous demonstration of form producing its own parody.