Poetry Role

POET - Write a nineteen line villanelle that records the reading or responds to the reading. You could do a little of both. For your villanelle, consider using a sentence from the book as your controlling line or lines (Line 1 and/or Line 3).

The villanelle is one of the most common forms or poetry templates used in the English language – second only to the sonnet. The villanelle form is effective because of its repeated pattern of sounds and lines – this repetition, when used correctly has a powerful and haunting effect.
The form requires only two rhyme sounds, and its nineteen lines are divided into three five three-line stanzas (tercets) and a four line concluding stanza (quatrain). The first and third lines of the first stanza serve as refrain lines entwined with the rhyme pattern – the first line repeated at the ends of the second and fourth stanzas, and the third repeated at the ends of the third and fifth stanzas. In the concluding stanza, the refrains are repeated as lines 18 and 19. We can express the pattern thus:


A1bA2
abA1
abA2
abA1
abA2
abA1A2

Use the most famous villanelle in history, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas to study and then acquire the skill of the villanelle.



http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377