Blue Window
  • Home

The Villanelle

4/6/2014

18 Comments

 
Since I posted my villanelle, "Spring Has Sprung: A Villanelle" in the March Madness Poetry Competition, I have had several questions about the villanelle form itself. So I decided to do a blog post about the villanelle. This is  not meant to be an exhaustive examination of the villanelle form but simply my experience with writing villanelles and some things I've learned about them. 

I like poetry.about.com's definition of the villanelle which includes the breakdown of the rhyme scheme:

The villanelle’s 19 lines form five triplets and a quatrain, using only two rhymes throughout the whole form. The entire first line is repeated as lines 6, 12 and 18 and the third line is repeated as lines 9, 15 and 19—so that the lines which frame the first triplet weave through the poem like refrains in a traditional song, and together form the end of the concluding stanza. With these repeating lines [often called the repetend] represented as A1 and A2 (because they rhyme together), the entire scheme is: 


A1
b
A2

a
b
A1 
(refrain)

a
b
A2 
(refrain)

a
b
A1 
(refrain)

a
b
A2 
(refrain)

a
b
A1 
(refrain)
A2 
(refrain)



A good example of a villanelle that many people know is Dylan Thomas' haunting, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" which I will quote here, since it is in the Public Domain. I'll superimpose the rhyme scheme to the right so you can see how Thomas put together his villanelle.


Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
By Dylan Thomas 1914-1953


Do not go gentle into that good night, A1
Old age should burn and rave at close of day; b
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. A2

Though wise men at their end know dark is right, a
Because their words had forked no lightning they  b
Do not go gentle into that good night. A1

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright  a
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,  b
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.  A2

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,  a
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,  b
Do not go gentle into that good night.  A1

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight  a
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,   b
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. A2

And you, my father, there on the sad height, a
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. b
Do not go gentle into that good night. A1
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. A2



* * *

In the process of trying to write villanelles, I have learned two things about writing villlanelles:


1. Be sure you have something worth repeating for your repeating lines as both repeating lines will each be repeated several times. 


2,  Choose your rhymes carefully. Because there are only two rhymes used throughout each villanelle, you have to choose your rhyme scheme carefully and be sure you have enough rhyming words that will work together to get you through the entire villanelle.

 * * *

When deciding to write my villanelle for March Madness, I decided to use my unusual given word, 'incontinent,' in one of the repeating lines, because I was using the second definition : 
  1. in·con·ti·nent
    inˈkäntənənt,-ˈkäntn-ənt/
    adjective
    adjective: incontinent

    1. having no or insufficient voluntary control over urination or defecation.

    2. lacking self-restraint; uncontrolled.
      "the incontinent hysteria of the fans"
      synonyms: unrestrained, lacking self-restraint, uncontrolled, unbridled, unchecked, unfettered

and I wanted to bombard the reader with the word, so no thought of the first definition of 'incontinent' would ever enter the reader's mind.


Secondly, I brainstormed for ideas which were 'incontinent' in themselves; i.e., unrestrained, uncontrolled, unbridled, unfettered, and the one idea that kept coming to me was springtime where buds and blooms are bursting, people are feeling exuberant after a long, cooped-up winter, and are getting out to enjoy the outdoors, syrup is flowing out of maple trees, animals are mating, etc., a veritable riot of unrestrained, out-of-control, unfettered incontinence. 


* * *

I'd like to include one more bit of information about the villanelle as a member of a family of repeating forms, such as the triolet, the pantoum, and the roundel.
I love Tilt-a-Whirl editor, Kate Bernadette Benedict's "Cheat Sheet of Poetic Forms." (I believe Tilt-a-Whirl is no longer being published), but it was good while it lasted and is still online for your reading enjoyment. There are good examples of many of the repeating forms.
18 Comments

March Madness "Fungibility"

3/20/2014

18 Comments

 
I've been on hiatus from my blog because we were moving. We have moved, and I'm in love with our new artsy house, but now we have to fix up our old place to get it on the market. I really don't enjoy the whole real estate thing; it eats up so much time. I'd rather be writing and blogging. What got me to post today is my involvement in March Madness. I was assigned the word, fungible, a word I had never heard of before. I felt like I was back in college, pulling an all-nighter, but it was a good feeling in a way to be so involved in producing one poem in a short period of time. We had 32 hours, but of course some of that had to be spent sleeping (not much, but some). In any case, I've linked to Ed DeCaria's Think Kid Think site below. Ed is the mastermind behind March Madness and I think it gets bigger and better every year. If you haven't checked out the Madness before, it's really a lot of fun to read and vote on the poems!
Picture
Voting for my match has begun. "Strewn" vs. "Fungibile".  Please cast your vote!
18 Comments

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Visit my Website
     my  Website
    Picture

    Author

    B. J. Lee is a children’s author and poet. Her picture book, There Was an Old Gator Who Swallowed a Moth, is launching with Pelican Publishing on February 15, 2019. She has poems in 25 poetry anthologies published by  Little, Brown, Wordsong, BloomsburyUK, National Geographic, Otter-Barry Books, Pomelo Books, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. She has worked with anthologists Lee Bennett Hopkins, J. Patrick Lewis and Kenn Nesbitt. She has written poems for such children’s magazines as Spider, Highlights and The School Magazine. Follow her on Twitter @bjlee_writer.

    Picture

    Poets' Garage website
    Picture
    Picture

    Picture

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    Categories

    All
    Adult Poetry
    Algernon Swinburne
    Anapest
    And The Crowd Goes Wild
    Ballad
    Bree Ogden
    Carol-Ann Hoyte
    Childrens Poet Laureate
    David L. Harrison
    Diving
    Dolphins
    Dylan Thomas
    Feminine Ending
    Fractured Fairy Tale
    Free Verse
    Fungibility
    Gordon Lightfoot
    Heidi Bee Roemer
    Highlights For Children
    Iamb
    Incontinent
    Julie Rowan-Zoch
    Kate Bernadette Benedict
    Kenn Nesbitt
    Laura Sassi
    Len Ebert
    Lewis Carroll
    Limerick
    March Madness
    Mask Poem
    Monorhyme
    One Minute Till Bedtime
    Osprey
    Parody
    Parroty
    Poem For Two Voices
    Poetry
    Poetry Friday
    Poetry Minute
    Repeating Forms
    Robert Service
    Roundel
    Sailboats
    Skateboard Girl
    Speculative Poetry
    Sports Poems
    The Horizon
    The Sea
    Underneath The Juniper Tree
    Villanelle
    Whales
    Witches

    Picture

    Includes my poem "Skateboard Girl"

    Picture
    Includes my poem "The Red Crabs of Christmas Island"

    Picture
    Coming in 2018 National Geographic's book of US: 200 Poems of People, Places, and Passions (edited by J. Patrick Lewis.)
    Will include my poem, "Groundhognostication"

    Picture
    Includes my story, "Alice and Snowball"

    Picture
    Includes my poem, "High Dive"
    Picture
    Includes my nominated poem, "Dream Train"
    Picture
    Includes my nominated poem, "The Tortoise's Encounter"
    Picture
    Includes my nominated poem, "The Legend of the Flying Dutchman"

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Includes my poem, "A Streetcar Named Happily Ever After"

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.