Metric Monday - Villanelle
I endeavored to write a villanelle while my children and their friends argue in French about whose fort is the best, most solid structure. But I'm just not that zen. Villanelles are a poetic form that is incredibly rigid. But because of it's rigidity, I find them easier to write, but not easy enough to write while 4 children buzz round my head like energetic and mostly benign bumble bees. So here is one of the most beautiful villanelles for your enjoyment. And, in case you are interested, a short explanation of the form taken from the Academy of American Poets.
This lovely poem is by Dylan Thomas.
The rhyme scheme of this 19 line poem is composed of alternating rhyming lines with a repetition of the first or last line of the first tercet at the end of each stanza. Here is the explanation taken from the website linked above:
The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem’s two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.
This lovely poem is by Dylan Thomas.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
The rhyme scheme of this 19 line poem is composed of alternating rhyming lines with a repetition of the first or last line of the first tercet at the end of each stanza. Here is the explanation taken from the website linked above:
The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem’s two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.
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