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Villanelle

Sometimes when you pick up your pen to write, you are assailed by a haunting thought. A single thought or two, which you feel can form the basis of a beautiful poetry. The central idea of the poem is a single thought but there are so many thoughts which lead from it or boil down to it. At such times, the form that can most beautifully show off your work is a villanelle.

What Is A Villanelle?

Well, Villanelle is a French word, derived from the original word in Italian, villanella. Villanella is believed derived from the Latin villano (farmhand), which is in turn derived from the Latin villa (farm).

It is a verse form consisting of five tercets and a final quatrain, which has only two end rhymes, repeating the first and third lines of the first stanza alternately in the following stanzas, and combining those two refrain lines into the final couplet in the quatrain. A villanelle needs no particular meter or line length. It is a terribly obsessive form of poetry which hinges on a single thought which is repeated through out the poem.

A good example of a villanelle is the following one written by Dylan Thomas titled "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.". It is one of the most famous villanelles and is a great example of how villanelle repetition works. Carefully note the rhyme scheme and the refrains. Using a villanelle is the best and easiest way to explain its structure.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Before we discuss more about the technical aspects of the villanelle lets delve a little into the history of the villanelle.

– Continued

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