Villanelle poetry

one of the many kinds of poetry.

1. Villanelle

2. a nineteen-line poem made up of five triplets with a closing quatrain. Usually written in tetrameter

3. The poem is characterized by having two refrains, initially used in the first and third lines of the first stanza, and then alternately used at the close of each subsequent stanza until the final quatrain which is concluded by the two refrains.

4. the remaining lines of the poem have an a-b alternating rhyme. Poets of Villanelle: Dylan Thomas W.H . Auden and Elizabeth Bishop .

5. The Structure of the Villanelle Line 1 – a – 1 st refrain Line 2 – b Line 3 – a – 2 nd refrain Line 4 – a Line 5 – b Line 6 – a – 1 st refrain (same as line 1) Line 7 – a Line 8 – b Line 9 – a – 2 nd refrain (same as line 2)

6. Line 10 – a Line 11 – b Line 12 – a – 1 st refrain (same as line 1 ) Line 13 – a Line 14 – b Line 15 – a – 2 nd refrain (same as line 2 ) Line 16 – a Line 17 – b Line 18 – a – 1 st refrain (same as line 1) Line 19 – a - 2 nd refrain (same as line 2)

7. EXAMPLE of VILLANELLE

8. DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) Do not go gentle into that good night,  Old age should burn 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.

9. 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.