A medieval French epic verse form composed in long laisses (stanzas of varying length unified by a single assonance or rhyme), performed by jongleurs and celebrating heroic, often legendary, deeds of Charlemagne and his knights, most famously in the Chanson de Roland.
Facts
Place of OriginFrance, 11th-13th century. 1 StructureComposed in laisses, stanzas of irregular length in which every line shares one assonance or rhyme, with decasyllabic or alexandrine lines depending on period. 1 Notable ExampleThe Chanson de Roland (c. 1100), the earliest and most celebrated surviving chanson de geste. 1 Connections
Associated With
Form Of Genre
Epic, Genres Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Sources
1. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Princeton University Press
Wikipedia: Chanson de geste
Lead and structure section, laisses
Early chansons de geste were typically composed in ten-syllable lines grouped in assonanced (meaning that the last stressed vowel is the same in each line throughout the stanza, but the last consonant differs from line to line) stanzas (called laisses).
Subject matter and structure
Composed in Old French and apparently intended for oral performance by jongleurs, the chansons de geste narrate legendary incidents
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