Villanelle

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Meaning: The word describes a specific form and rhyme scheme. A poem composed of an uneven number (usually five) of tercets rhyming aba, with a final quatrain rhyming abaa. In this French fixed form, the first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately as the third lines of the succeeding tercets, and together as the final couplet of the quatrain. Representing these repeated lines in capitals, with the second of them given in italic, the rhyme scheme may be displayed thus: AbA abA abA abA abA abAA.

Context: The form was established in France in the 16th century, and used chiefly for pastoral songs. In English, it was used for light vers de société by some minor poets of the late 19th century; but it has been adopted for more serious use by W. H. Auden, William Empson, and Derek Mahon. The best-known villanelle in English, however, is Dylan Thomas's 'Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night' (1952).

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Baldick, Chris Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. p. 260

Examples:

VILLANELLE OF SUNSET
Dowson, Ernest Christopher

1 Come hither, Child! and rest:
2 This is the end of day,
3 Behold the weary West!

4 Sleep rounds with equal zest
5 Man's toil and children's play:
6 Come hither, Child! and rest.

7 My white bird, seek thy nest,
8 Thy drooping head down lay:
9 Behold the weary West!

10 Now are the flowers confest
11 Of slumber: sleep, as they!
12 Come hither, Child! and rest.

13 Now eve is manifest,
14 And homeward lies our way:
15 Behold the weary West!

16 Tired flower! upon my breast,
17 I would wear thee alway:
18 Come hither, Child! and rest;
19 Behold, the weary West!


To Eva Descending the Stair A Villanelle
Plath, Sylvia

1 Clocks cry: stillness is a lie, my dear;
2 The wheels revolve, the universe keeps running.
3 (Proud you halt upon the spiral stair.)

4 The asteroids turn traitor in the air,
5 And planets plot with old elliptic cunning;
6 Clocks cry: stillness is a lie, my dear.

7 Red the unraveled rose sings in your hair:
8 Blood springs eternal if the heart be burning.
9 (Proud you halt upon the spiral stair.)

10 Cryptic stars wind up the atmosphere,
11 In solar schemes the tilted suns go turning;
12 Clocks cry: stillness is a lie, my dear.

13 Loud the immortal nightingales declare:
14 Love flames forever if the flesh be yearning.
15 (Proud you halt upon the spiral stair.)

16 Circling zodiac compels the year.
17 Intolerant beauty never will be learning.
18 Clocks cry: stillness is a lie, my dear.
19 (Proud you halt upon the spiral stair.)

Sosheehan 03:16, 1 February 2007 (EST)