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Exploring
the Villanelle
John Daleiden
The villanelle is a six stanza, nineteen-line French form,
which Jean Passerat (1534-1602)
standardized in the late 1500s. The villanelle contains five triplet stanzas and a sixth concluding quatrain.
The poem turns on only two rhymes. Line one and three of the first triplet are refrains appearing in lines six, twelve, and eighteen;
the second refrain appears as lines, nine, fifteen and nineteen. The pattern can be represented as follows: A1, b, A2; a, b, A1; a, b,
A2; a, b, A1; a, b, A2; a, b, A2; A1, A2 (occasionally the quatrain is arranged a, b, A2, A1). The letters a and b represent the two
rhymes in the poem: the capital A1, and A2 lines represent lines that are repeated as refrains. Over the centuries writers have treated the refrain lines
incrementally, admitting both minor and major variations in the repetition. Generally, all lines are of the same metrical length; English
villanelle are most commonly written in iambic pentameter, however, a thorough study of English villanelle literature reveals many metrical
variations.
Origin of Villanelle
The word villanelle comes from the Latin (or Italian) villa, meaning "country house" or "farm";
it is also related to the word
villain. A "villain" was simply a farm servant, a country bumpkin, originally. Prior to its use by French poets, the villanella was an old Italian
folk song with an accompanying dance.
Villanelle Subject Matter
The subject matter in villanelle poems has undergone change in the six centuries poets have
used the form, ranging from pastoral poems celebrating country living, love poems, philosophical poems, lyrical poems, satirical poems, as
well as serious and dramatic poems. Although the villanelle is not a highly popular form, it has never faded from use, and in the twentieth
and early twenty-first centuries it has regained a moderate popularity in the hands of skilled poets.
Villanelle
Writers and Poems
Twentieth and twenty-first century English and American writers
have written many villanelles worthy of study. A few are
included in the following list: Edwin Arlington Robinson, "The House On The Hill", Dylan Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night", Theodore
Roethke, "The Waking", Elizabeth Bishop, "One Art", Hayden Carruth, "Saturday At The Border".
Experiment: A Collaborative Villanelle
In May 2005 WHCpoetrybridge Director Karina Klesko invited poets to study the villanelle form
and write their own villanelles. A number of villanelles were posted. Eventually, Karina proposed that the poets combine their artistic interests in
Eastern and Western forms and collaboratively write a villanelle. Six writers embarked on the project which was eventually finished by four members of the original group. The entire process has been summarized on the
blog, Villanelle's Eastern Renga
Style.
The writers began by submitting lines for the A1 and A2 repeated lines in the poem. The lines were posted on the
blog and selected by vote. Next, the same process was used to complete verse 1. Verses 2 - 5 were assigned to individual writers;
their submissions were discussed, edited, and revised. The poets submitted 14 titles for consideration after the completion of the first five verses.
Then the a and b lines of verse 6 were created using the process of submission and voting. There was a tie vote between two poets for the sixth verse.
The tie was resolved by selecting one line from each if the verses. The final collaborative villanelle, "Rosa Rugosa" is included in the villanelle section
of this issue.
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