A refrain is a line or group of lines repeated at intervals in a poem or song, usually at the end of a stanza. It anchors the form and deepens meaning through recurrence.

Ballads, villanelles, and many popular songs rely on refrains. Each return of the familiar words can accumulate new resonance as the surrounding context changes. The refrain may stay identical or undergo slight variation. Its repetition aids memory—an essential function in oral tradition—and creates a sense of ritual or insistence.

A well-chosen refrain feels both inevitable and freshly charged each time it appears. A weak one merely pads the text. Poets and songwriters use the device to emphasize a central emotion, idea, or image so that it lodges in the audience’s mind.

The line that comes back, again and again, at the expected place is the refrain.