There are several variations of the rondel, and some inconsistencies. For example, sometimes only the first line of the poem is repeated at the end; or: the second refrain may return at the end of last stanza, making a Rondel Prime (aka, Rondel Supreme or French Sonnet). Henry Austin Dobson provides the following example of a rondel prime:


Love comes back to his vacant dwelling,
The old, old Love that we knew of yore!
We see him stand by the open door,
With his great eyes sad, and his bosom swelling.

He makes as though in our arms repelling
He fain would lie as he lay before;
Love comes back to his vacant dwelling,
The old, old Love that we knew of yore!

Ah ! who shall help us from over-spelling
That sweet, forgotten, forbidden lore?
E'en as we doubt, in our hearts once more,
With a rush of tears to our eyelids welling,
Love comes back to his vacant dwelling,
The old, old Love that we knew of yore!