Directory of Villanelle Resources

Home > Arts > Literature > Poetry > Forms > Fixed Verse Forms > Villanelle

The villanelle is a French poetic form consisting of five three-line verses and a sixth four-line verse. The first and third lines of the first verse are repeated alternately as the last line of the next four verses and then placed together as the ending couplet of the last verse. In addition, the five three-line verses all rhyme aba, with the last verse rhyming abaa. Thus there are only two rhymes in the entire poem. In most villanelles the repetition is light and graceful, but in some, including the most famous one, Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," the repetition is used to express powerful emotion.

Resources in This Category

• Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

  http://www.bigeye.com/donotgo.htm
  By Dylan Thomas. The most famous example of the form in English.

• Pan - Double Villanelle

  http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/poetry/PoemsbyOscarWilde/chap82.html
  By Oscar Wilde.

• Poetic Form: Villanelle

  https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/villanelle-poetic-form
  An explanation of the form, with the example of Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" and a link to Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art," from the Academy of American Poets.

• Poetry Form - The Villanelle

  http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/villanelle.htm
  A description and explanation of the form, with examples and a step-by-step guide to writing one.

• Poetry Knowledge Zone: Villanelle

  http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=KnowledgeZone&KnowledgeZoneID=11
  Explanation, history, and step-by-step instructions for writing by Smitha Chakravarthula. Includes examples.

• The Rapist's Villanelle

  http://amalgamonster.blogspot.com/2009/01/rapists-villanelle.html
  By Tom Disch.

• Theocritus: a Villanelle

  http://www.bartleby.com/143/37.html
  By Oscar Wilde.

• Villanelle

  http://members.optusnet.com.au/kazoom/poetry/villanelle.html
  A description of the form with examples by Suzanne Honour.

• Villanelle

  http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/formsofverse/reports2000/page8.html
  Descriptions and examples from a course taught by Alberto Rios.

• Villanelle

  http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2001/01/villanelle-w-h-auden.html
  By W.H. Auden

• Villanelle

  http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2001/02/villanelle-william-empson.html
  By William Empson.

• Villanelle at Sundown

  http://plagiarist.com/poetry/?wid=388
  By Donald Justice.

• Villanelle of Change

  http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/villanelle-change
  By Edwin Arlington Robinson.

• Villanelles for Free

  http://www.poemsforfree.com/villanelles.html
  A collection by Nicholas Gordon that can be used free for any personal or non-commercial purpose.

 

Home > Arts > Literature > Poetry > Forms > Fixed Verse Forms > Villanelle

 

---

 

Thanks to DMOZ, which built a great web directory for nearly two decades and freely shared it with the web. About us