Villanelles love repetition. I love you, I love you, I love you! Farafina, Farafina, Farafina.
Take a look at our example:
Villanelle of His Lady’s Treasures
Ernest Dowson
I took her dainty eyes, as well
As silken tendrils of her hair:
And so I made a Villanelle!
I took her voice, a silver bell,
As clear as song, as soft as prayer;
I took her dainty eyes as well.
It may be, said I, who can tell,
These things shall be my less despair?
And so I made a Villanelle!
I took her whiteness virginal
And from her cheek two roses rare:
I took her dainty eyes as well.
I said: “It may be possible
Her image from my heart to tear!”
And so I made a Villanelle.
I stole her laugh, most musical:
I wrought it in with artful care;
I took her dainty eyes as well;
And so I made a Villanelle.
The VERY brief rules of the Villanelle:
1) The Villanelle is a poem of nineteen lines
2) It has six stanzas
3) There are two refrain lines
4) The rhyme scheme is aba
How to write a Villanelle:
1) Decide on your two refrain lines and make sure they rhyme. ‘I thought that she would be mine’ ‘but she dumped me on Valentine’
2) Construct your first stanza. In choosing your middle line, make sure to choose a word that you can rhyme with easily:
‘I thought that she would be mine
She asked for a watch, I gave her two!
But she dumped me on Valentine’
3) Each of your refrain lines will now play the role of the last line of your remaining stanzas, consecutively; except for the last stanza where both lines feature in the final two lines.
‘I thought that she would be mine
She asked for a watch, I gave her two!
But she dumped me on Valentine
She wanted a drink, I bought her wine
I hoped that she would be my boo
I thought that she would be mine
The dress I got her was sublime
And I got her the matching shoe
But she dumped me on Valentine
I told her that she was so fine
I asked what she would have me do
I thought that she would be mine
I saw a ring, I gave her nine
With so many she must stay true
But she dumped me on Valentine
I had her close, she was divine
She made me hot and cold and blue
I thought that she would be mine
But she dumped me on Valentine!’
Have fun creating your own villanelle!
For examples of more villanelles:
Elizabeth Bishop – One Art – http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15212
http://web.njit.edu/~ronkowit/poetsonline/archive/arch_villanelle.html
To keep track of our e-love blog fest, visit: http://farafinabooks.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/write-me-a-love-letter/
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