Poetic Forms Villanelle

What is a Villanelle? A villanelle is a French verse (poem) form consisting of nineteen lines divided into six stanzas. The poem consists of five tercets followed by a quatrain with the rhyme scheme: aba aba aba aba aba abaa

Repetition The first line of the first tercet is repeated as the last line of the second and fourth tercets. The third line of the first tercet is repeated as the last line of the third and fifth tercets. Finally, these two lines are repeated as a couplet in the last two lines of the quatrain. So…line 1 appears in its entirety as lines 6, 12, and 18, while line 3 appears as lines 9, 15, 19.

Example Let’s take a look at Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night.” Spend 5 minutes reviewing the poem and organizing some thoughts in your notebook. Consider the effect the repeated lines have on the poem as a whole.