poetry

more poem-ing: the villanelle

in

Since I am on a writing kick these days and can't help but be pedantic, I'll teach you what I know about another form of poetry, the villanelle. I am by no means an expert on poetry, but I do like to look stuff up --since people like to opine on things they haven't even bothered to research, I figure that makes me pretty darned close to expert by today's standards. Come on along!

Before I move on, let's get the obvious question out of the way: sure, a villanelle can be a poem about bad guys if you want. It can be about anything, including bad guys. 

I found a writing prompt several years ago that asked for a villanelle and I had to look up what it was. I found that the most famous example is Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" and proceeded to use that as a model for the rhyme and meter. The rhyme scheme is pretty well set (and I'll describe it below), but the meter can be what you like. I tend to write in iambic tetrameter (four buhDUMs), but iambic pentameter is more classic (for pentameter, add one buhDUM). It can be anything, though, as long as it's consistent from line to line.* 

*If you're one of those people who thinks, "Screw the rules! I don't answer to the Man," please keep in mind that you're just experimenting with poetry. It's better to try them and decide they're not for you. As a "Screw the rules!" personality, I have actually found some of the rules helpful --and hey, Shakespeare liked it, so ... . Anyway, it's up to you.

For a villanelle, you'll need two really easy rhymes because you will need to think of seven words that rhyme for your A rhymes and six for your B rhymes. They go like this, with each letter representing a line in your poem and the slashes representing a stanza break:

A1 B A2/A B A1/A B A2/A B A1/A B A2/A B A1 A2

A1 is a repeated line, as is A2. The result ends up being a 19-line poem consisting of six stanzas. It looks really complicated, and it kind of is, but you get used to it after a while. The key is being able to come up with those rhymes! It is probably the poem type that I end up coming up with the most when I write formal poetry; I set out to write a sonnet, and then I look down, and it's a villanelle.

So why write about villanelles today? It's Saturday! Go do something useful! I was looking at old poems today and found one I had forgotten writing. It was written in May 2017 apparently. Since it was a villanelle, I thought why not? Here's an example. Warning: language (a little titillation to get you to keep reading) ...

 

I cannot sit and think of you --

It always ends in fucking grief,

And I have better things to do.

 

You stole my soul while passing through --

Your shadow is a goddamned thief.

I cannot sit and think of you.

 

I do not miss the blood you drew.

It’s gone --I’m empty with relief,

‘Cause I have better things to do.

 

When all is false and nowt is true,

I’m left behind with one belief:

I cannot sit and think of you.

 

My rage is red, and Hell is blue.

The end is long and life is brief,

So I have better things to do.

 

Replace the old with something new --

I’ve many thoughts, and this is chief:

I cannot sit and think of you

‘Cause I have better things to do.

 

As you can see, the rhymes end in "oo" (A) and "eef" (B), and the repeating lines are "I cannot sit and think of you" (A1) and "'Cause I have better things to do" (A2).

I really hope someone reading this will try to write one. Formal poetry has been very helpful to me in distracting me from things that might be going on in the world and from things that might be going on in my head. You can still be rage-y (a lot of villanelles end up rage-y), but having to think of themes, rhymes, and meter takes the edge off.

Good luck to you. And have fun.