The VIRELAI NOUVEAU relies on just two rhymes – and its form is fluid, in that it is seldom used and so poets tend to adopt their own rules to suit the poem they are writing. In general, all lines have the same metre, and the opening two lines form a rhyming couplet, appearing alternately at the end of each stanza. The poem closes with them placed in reverse order. Sometimes the opening lines are presented as a separate stanza.
The number of stanzas (after three) varies, as does the number of lines in a stanza.
For example purposes, this virelai nouveau, written in iambic tetrameter, has the minimum of three stanzas, and takes the pattern: A1 A2 b a b a A1 a a b a b a A2 a b A2 A1.