Villanelle, Poetic Form Exercise Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

In the Villanelle, the first five stanzas are triplets (or tercets), and the last stanza is a quatrain such that the rhyme scheme is as follows: "aba aba aba aba aba abaa." Thus a Villanelle has 19 lines. The 1st and 3rd lines from the first stanza are alternately repeated such that the 1st line becomes the last line in the second stanza, and the 3rd line becomes the last line in the third stanza. The last two lines of the poem are lines 1 and 3 respectively, making a rhymed couplet. There are only two rhymes in the usual villanelle, placed strategically in the poem. A villanelle needs no particular meter or line length.

One of the most noted of these that is a splendid example is one by Dylan Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."

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 me, 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!