The Villanelle

A rigid poetry form and a pain in the butt. That's the villanelle. The rhyme scheme consists of nineteen lines of five tercets and a quatrain. The first and third lines act as refrains alternatingly in each stanza until, in the quatrain, they become the final two lines. Confused yet?

The villanelle goes way back in Renaissance Spain and Italy where they were peasant dance songs. Imagine today's country songs in a line dance. They weren't as rigid back then, and had a pastoral theme. A troubadour would sing the two lines and the crowd would sing the refrain alternating with each stanza. The modern villanelle reached its defined form during the nineteenth century and written mostly in English.

Today's villanelle is obssessive and emotional by its repetitiveness. Kinda like today's country songs.

Back, oh, about fifteen years ago I decided to tackle the different poetry forms as a writing exercise.  I was not doing well with this poetry form until I met the "she" at work and the villanelle took to its own.  I've taken the artistic liberty to edit it. The original is at The Writer's Voice (link below).


Villanelle for the Forgotten
© 2000 Elizabeth Maua Taylor at The Writer's Voice
© 2014 edited version by Elizabeth Maua Taylor

She waits, she ponders, hopes, and prays
While dawn has yet to see the light
That they would visit her today.

Her hands no longer clasp the stays;
The nurse helps her to dress just right.
She waits, she ponders, hopes, and prays.

Through meds and tests and dinner trays
She talks to those who will sit tight
That they would visit her today.

She wonders while she's in x-ray,
Did she miss them? Did they arrive?
She waits, she ponders, hopes, and prays.

The evening television plays.
She sits, anticipation high,
That they would visit her today.

Another sleepless night she stays
To greet the chilly morning light.
She waits, she ponders, hopes, and prays
That they would visit her today.