VILLANELLE

       The villanelle, a French form, is a 19-line structure consisting of five 3-line stanzas (tercets) and one 4-line final stanza (quatrain)

       Its main device, as with the pantoum, is effective repetition. Unlike the pantoum, however, the length of the villanelle is prescribed. Idyllic, delicate subject matter is recommended. No specific rhythmic pattern is required. Research indicates that tetrameter (4 beat line) is most commonly used. E. A. Robinson used trimeter (3-beat line) in his well known villanelle, "The House on the Hill."

       Two rhymes are required by the form. The writer should select the rhyming sounds early and carefully. The total rhyme scheme is a-b-a, a-b-a, a-b-a, a-b-a, a-b-a, a-b-a-a. Lines 1 and 3 appear four times in the poem, which means the poet constructs only 13 total lines.

       The poem below, by Dylan Thomas (1914-1953), is considered a classic example of the form. He elected to use iambic pentameter, which, again, is NOT a requirement of the form. 

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Old age should turn and rage 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 learned 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 the 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.


Several poets have taken liberties with this classical form with interesting results.  Take a look at "The Waking" by Theodore Roethke and "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop.  Those poems must be labeled variations. 

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