ROUNDELAY, a kind of ancient poem, thus termed, according to Menage, from its form; because it turns back again to the first verse, and thus goes round. This poem is little known among us; but is very common among the French, who call it rondelau. It consists commonly of 13 verses, eight whereof are in one rhyme, and five in another. It is divided into couplets; at the end of the second and third whereof, the beginning of the roundelay is repeated, and that, if possible, in an equivocal or pausing sense.