Greetings, everyone!
To cut to the chase, this week we will pursue a poetic challenge. The glorious form of Villanelle! Like the title of my prompt says, you should try it, at least once!
What is a Villanelle?
A villanelle is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repeated alternately until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines.
To put it more plainly, it is a poetic form, with repetition of stanzas. The villanelle is known to inspire the reader to think and feel of repetitive, even delirious things, that captivate us, enchant us, in good and both ways. The repetition scheme of the villanelle tends to sound very enchanting and magical.
Some of the most famous villanelles are Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas, and Mad Girl’s Love Song by Sylvia Plath.
Here is the illustration of the pattern of the form from Wiki
Personally, when writing a villanelle I found that pre-writing the pattern into my Notepad document helps a great deal. I later on replace the letters with my stanzas.
This form is very challenging, but also one of the most rewarding I found. I do not think any other formal form of poetry ever before made me feel so enchanted and lured by the result. This is why I call this the form you should try, at least once!
At last, if the pattern is too confusing, here is another villanelle you can use as a blueprint or guideline:
(Write it!)
As you can see from my example, the form allows for creativity and manipulation, even within what appears its rigorous forms. So do not be afraid to twist, turn, experiment.
I hope you take this challenge and I hope you enjoy writing it! When you are done posting, please link up/pingback and remember to tag your post with MindLoveMisery’s Menagerie, villanelle, form poetry, prompt and similar.
I am really looking forward to reading all the entries and I am here for all your questions and encouragement!
Have fun!
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Oh, I have done a Villanelle – once… (and that is once to many for me, hee he)
Let me see if I can find it. Quick search came up empty – which means I may not have tagged it…and I might, might have to try again. Ugh.
🙂
Maybe tomorrow.
I do hope you try! I am looking forward to it!
OK…just for you – Since you asked so nicely…
(I built it backwards – like my cooking, made some slight adjustments and make no excuses for the weak ending…)
Kitchen Miss
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Hope I’m not too late:
https://fmmewritespoems.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/midnight-villanelle
Not late at all! Thank you for joining us!
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