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Villanelle – 2

History Of Villanelle

The word villanelle, or villenesque, was used toward the end of the sixteenth century to describe literary imitations of rustic songs. Such villanelles were alike in exhibiting a refrain which testified to their ultimate popular origin. The villanelle was, in a sense, invented by Jean Passerat (1534-1602) whose poem about a turtle dove is acknowledged as the first modern villanelle.  In the nineteenth century, English poets including Oscar Wilde wrote villanelle. More recently, many American and British poets (including Theodore Roethke, Elizabeth Bishop, W.H. Auden, and Dylan Thomas) have written Villanelles. Usually they vary the content of the repeated lines, to soften the strict repetition of the traditional form.

The mark of a villanelle, though, is the repetition of the first and third lines throughout the poem. The first line is repeated as the last line of the second and fourth stanzas, and as the penultimate line of the final quatrain. The third line is repeated as the last line of the third and fifth stanzas, and as the last line of the concluding quatrain (and thus the last line of the poem). Line length, meter, etc. will vary. The meter and length of the line is not part of the form - however, usually the lines are of approximately the same length, whatever the length for a particular villanelle may be. Some poets will vary the repeated lines (see Bishop's "One Art" and others will repeat them exactly each time (which is the norm) or vary only the punctuation.

Form Of A Villanelle

Conventionally a villanelle looks like this.

A1 (refrain)
b
A2 (refrain)

a
b
A1 (refrain)

a
b
A2 (refrain)

a
b
A1 (refrain)

a
b
A2 (refrain)

a
b
A1
A2 (refrain)

– Continued

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