Villanelle

by S. L. P. Van der Veer

Spring 2002

The villanelle comes from an old Italian folk song form that was brought into medieval French poetry (16 th century). Originally, it was distinguished only by the use of a refrain and a pastoral subject. Four 8-line stanzas with a 1-to 2- line refrain at the end of each stanza was a popular sequence, although poets used differing lengths to suit their need. The form became standardized in the 17 th century when Jean Passerat (1534-1602) wrote a villanelle called “J’ay perdu ma tourterelle”. When the villanelle was brought into English poetry around the end of the 19 th century, most English poets chose to follow Passerat’s lead, and made the villanelle a fixed form in English.

The villanelle, in its fixed English form, is composed of nineteen lines arranged in six stanzas: five tercets and a quatrain. While lines may be any length, they tend to be iambic tetrameter or iambic pentameter in English. The first and third lines of the first tercet form the refrain, and are repeated as follows: the first line repeats as the sixth, twelfth and eighteenth lines, while the third line repeats as the ninth, fifteenth and nineteenth lines.

The form is based on two rhymes. The first and third lines rhyme with each other; the first line of each tercet rhymes with them. All of the second lines rhyme with one another. This creates a rhyme scheme of: A 1bA 2 abA 1 abA 2 abA 1 abA 2 abA 1A 2. Capital letters denote a repeated line as indicated by the superscript numbers and rhyme with their lowercase counterparts.

Villanelle subjects have expanded from the pastoral to include light verse as well as serious and metaphysical topics. In the 20 th century, various poets have also endeavoured to introduce greater flexibility into the form, similar to that of its early French origins.

First Light

by S. L. P. Van der Veer

 

First Light, well I remember thee ~

where the dawn first touches the shore

still by the light and laughing sea,

 

where the waters meet with the trees

and spray leaps an elf’s reach or more…

First Light, well I remember thee.

 

Streets, once thriving, now lay empty,

silent, still, as never before…

still, by the light and laughing sea.

 

Burned by fear and hatred’s decree,

gleaming city lost to war…

First Light, well I remember thee.

 

Though far from home your children be,

these elven hearts are, at their core,

still by the light and laughing sea.

 

Araste makatare nih.

Tihr a’lahn, adas’en ishielor…

First Light, well I remember thee

still by the light and laughing sea.

For Additional Information

Auden, W. H.

Dowson, Ernest. Villanelle of the Poet’s Road.

Empson, William.

Roethke, Theodore. The Waking.

Thomas, Dylan. Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night.

Wilde, Oscar. Theocritus.

library.thinkquest.org/3721/poems/forms/villa.html

www.uni.edu/~gotera/CraftOfPoetry

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