Definition of Villanelle:
A 19-line poem
consisting of five tercets and a final quatrain on two rhymes. The first and
third lines of the first tercet repeat alternately as a refrain closing the
succeeding stanzas and joined as the final couplet of the quatrain. Villanelles also gradually build in tone
and intensity from one stanza to the next.
Example/Mentor Text:
This is Dylan
Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night." It is one of the
most famous villanelles and, while Thomas does not experiment much with the
form, the poem is a great example of how villanelle repetition works. The
boldface and italics are there to more easily show the repeated lines and
demonstrate the structure of the poem.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should
burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the
light.
Though wise men
at their end know dark is right,
Because their
words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Good men, the
last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail
deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the
light.
Wild men who
caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too
late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Grave men, near
death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes
could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the
light.
And you, my
father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless,
me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the
light.
