Refrain

A refrain ([ʀəˈfʀɛ̃ː]; from Old French refraindre "to repeat"; German Kehrreim or Kehrvers) is the regular repetition of verses within strophic poems and songs. In terms of content, a distinction is made between the repetition of mere sound or tone sequences (tone refrain, for example in yodelling) and the repetition of words or word sequences (word refrain). An identically repeating refrain is called a fixed refrain, if the repetition is varied according to the content of the respective verse, this is called a liquid refrain.

From the position of the repeated verses are distinguished:

• End rhyme or final refrain: always at the end of the stanza; the most common case
• Initial refrain, opening chorus or counter-chorus: at the beginning of each verse.
• Internal rhyme: each time inside the stanza

In internal rhyme, a verse is repeated within a stanza. A special form is the frame rhyme, in which the opening verse of a stanza is repeated at its end. Frame rhyme belongs to the poem forms rondeau and triplet.

One speaks of periodic gerrymandering when a gerrymander does not appear in every single stanza, such as the opening gerrymander in the 1st, 4th, and 7th stanzas in Georg Herwegh's Aufruf, or when entire stanzas are repeated at intervals, as in Friedrich Rückert's Aus der Jugendzeit. If two different reciprocal rhymes alternate at the same position in the stanza, this is called alternating reciprocal rhyme.

A special form of the refrain is the chain rhyme, in which the rhyme is extended by one verse after each verse. A well-known example is the Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas. If this chain runs in reverse order, i.e. if the added verse is inserted at the beginning of the chorus, it is called a backward running chain rhyme, as it occurs for example in the song Jan Hinnerk.

The function of the refrain in the poem consists in bundling, retracing and intensifying. It binds the stanzas together beyond the response and divides the poem in its overall structure. It sets the mood especially in narrative poems, ballads, and songs; a well-known example is the refrain Nevermore in Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven. Other examples in which the refrain concentrates the entire message of a poem include the fluid, titular final return rhyme in Adelbert von Chamisso's Die Sonne bringt es an den Tag or the catchphrase refrain Der Freiheit eine Gasse! in Georg Herwegh's poem of the same name. Together with rhyme and meter, the refrain makes it easier to remember the text, a fundamental function for oral tradition.

In pop music, the chorus is the actual supporting part, around which a song is often virtually composed. It is not uncommon for a piece of music in its second half to consist only of constant repetitions of the chorus, which is at best moved up a semitone (sequenced) for the purpose of a final increase, before then slowly fading out (fade-out). The term chorus, which comes from English, is often used for this.