BardsAmongUs

Try it! Can you write a "Villanelle?"

A villanelle, also known as villanesque, is a nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third lines of the first tercet repeated alternately at the end of each subsequent stanza until the last stanza, and blah... blah... blah... boring... keep reading.... which includes both repeated lines. The villanelle is an example of a fixed verse form. The word derives from Latin, then Italian, and is related to the initial subject of the form being the pastoral. Oh, that was a confusing mess...

Okay... so are you pulling your hair out now? Don't... here is an example of one with smarter-er helps in crafting your own:

Writing a Villanelle Drives Me to Yell

I’m pulling out my hair—this form is hell. [A]
These cursed refrains just loop like broken clocks. [B]
Why did I choose to write a villanelle? [A]

It’s structure-bound, a literary cell, [A]
A cage of rhymes and doors with stubborn locks. [B]
I’m pulling out my hair—this form is hell. [A]

I pace, I scream, I curse the page as well, [A]
My brain feels like a box of clanging rocks. [B]
Why did I choose to write a villanelle? [A]

Each tercet mocks me with its rigid shell, [A]
Each rhyme falls flat, each metaphor just shocks. [B]
I’m pulling out my hair—this form is hell. [A]

I write, delete, then whisper, “Ah, farewell,” [A]
But still it grips me tight like clingy socks. [B]
Why did I choose to write a villanelle? [A]

Oh poetic gods, release me from this spell— [A]
I’ll trade my pens for cheese or mismatched Crocs. [B]
I’m pulling out my hair—this form is hell. [A]
Why did I choose to write a villanelle? [B]

A B A x5... then A B A B..., you see? It's one of my favorite forms but I'm a bit nuts.

Give it a try, you may not die... the "bestest" tries, might win a prize, and so might ones that we despise!

Here's another one, click the pic below for "The Thyrsus Stirs the Air." It was a Greek thingy... The Greeks were my peeps. They were weird but so were your ancestors too, so it's okay. It's what we love about artists, we're weird...

Villanelles started as simple ballad-like songs with no fixed form; this fixed quality would only come later. It is believed that the poem Villanelle: J'ay perdu ma Tourterelle (1606) by Jean Passerat started this wonderful mess... I mean this brilliant poetic form:

J'ay perdu ma Tourterelle

J'ay perdu ma Tourterelle: [A]

Est-ce point celle que j'oy? [B]

Je veus aller aprés elle. [A]

Tu regretes ta femelle, [A]

Helas! aussi fai-je moy, [B]

J'ay perdu ma Tourterelle. [A]

---

I have lost my turtledove:

Isn't that her gentle coo?

I will go and find my love.

Here you mourn your mated love;

Oh, God—I am mourning too:

I have lost my turtledove.

Now it's your turn... if you dare... take your Thyrsus and stir the air!