The villanelle, a nineteen-line poem arranged in five triplets and a concluding quatrain, which repeats the first and third line alternately as a refrain and brings them both back together at the end, and which rhymes aba aba aba aba abaa.

Possibly the most famous villanelle is Dylan Thomas’

‘Do not go gentle into that good night’

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse me, 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!

Dylan Thomas

Don’t be frightened by the formality of this style or the fact that there are only two rhyming sounds to play with.  The very structure of the form will force you to be extremely selective in your vocabulary and syntax.

The essential requirement is two lines that are strong enough to withstand the necessary repetition throughout the poem (lines 1 and 3).

If you find the repetition as refrain too constricting try a slightly more relaxed style that follows the rhyme only, within the same five triplets and a quatrain form.  I did just this with Desiderata an imagined response  by D. J. Thomas to his son Dylan’s poem.  I found the resulting poem to be more appropriate for someone who has lived his life and is no longer as confined by life’s structures.

Try it yourself.  I think you will enjoy the exercise

For some examples of villanelles written by regulars of Originality just hit the hyperlinks above left.

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