Villanelles
Notice the contrast between last week’s free verse and the villanelle. It would be interesting to read other poems by Dylan Thomas and Elizabeth Bishop, who wrote the Villanelle’s we are close reading this week. Especially in Bishop’s case, the voice of the villanelle and the voice of the free verse are remarkably similar. Bishop can chat and confide even in a villanelle! Robert Frost said “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and thought has found words.” The Villanelle, in particular, illustrates this. Though it is a killer to write. What do you think?
April 10th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
The irony of this poem screams to me through the pages. That is what draws me to this poem. I love the dissonance that is present. It begins to lightheartedly yet by the end the meaning and sorrow digs deep. Bishop writes this poem in the form of the villanelle. Bishop begins by talking about simple and everyday objects. It can be so easy to misplace or lose track o certain items. We loose keys, forget names, loose valuable, a home, or even a city or continent. Losing those items doesn’t bring disaster. I love her repetitive nature throughout the poem, as to really stress the lose and reoccurrence. With each section of the poem, the objects that she looses seem to gain more and more value. Despite their increasing monetary value, none of these losses cause any major problems. Throughout life we seem to master the skill of losing. It can become an everyday part of our lives. We might even miss what we lose, but we don’t stop life because of it. As the poem goes on, there comes along a lost of something of so much value that affects the author like no other. She looses a husband or lover, and must convince herself that sometimes loses are unavoidable and it is okay to see them as disasters. Obviously, Bishop was touched deeply by the loss of someone close to her. It is almost as though through the poem she embraces the pain and loss and accepts it as a part of life. With acceptance comes a deeper understanding of life and loss.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Personally I didn’t mind writing a Villanelle poem. I thought it was fun to discuss our poems to each other in class. I liked the Villanelle poem I wrote and hope to write more Villanelles in the future. My poem was a personal poem about a time when I experienced strong emotions due to what ended up being a spiritual lesson. The lesson I learned is that we cannot do things in life with our own strength, mind, and control. We can’t control our lives! Only He, our Lord, can! It’s so hard to completely give our lives over to God and let Him control our lives. For me anyway, I’ve experienced many times where I fall short of God’s glory by trying to live on my own without his guidance. I liked the fact that we got to write a poem about something that we felt strongly about and in my case a time that I experienced strong feelings. I also liked that we had to follow a strict schedule for the Villanelle poems because the free verse poems didn’t seem structured enough for me. I think this is why it was easier for me to write a Villanelle poem. I liked these poems that we looked at this week and wrote because of how they expressed strong feelings and emotions and had a distinct structure to them.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:53 am
I find it absolutely nothing short of amazing that Bishop is able to put such precise and effective opinion and force into a villanelle. Like it says above, this form is very difficult to write. In my personal writing for class, I found it nearly impossible to say what I really wanted to say due to the constraints of the form. At times, I felt even silly, sitting around, spouting off words that rhymed with deep just to keep a consistent pattern.
However, I feel as though I have always been told, ‘if something is repeated, it is important’. I believe that this comment was in reference to scripture, but I believe that this poetic form gets at that core concept, the fact that the emphasis on these restrains conveys their importance. In the case of Bishop’s villanelle, this repetition produces not only a sense or importance but also of great pleading. While difficult to work with, the end result of this form can be quite impressive in the end.
April 11th, 2008 at 7:33 am
The repetition of the two refrains in the villanelle is clever because it allows to reader to enjoy more than one interpretation of their meaning. In Dylan Thomson’s villanelle introduced in class, the repetition of “do not go into that good night” is powerful because it either stands by it self like in stanzas 1, 4, and 6. In these cases, it seems like more of a pleading cry from the speaker (an imperative phrase, if you will). In the other cases, the phrase is connected with another, as a continuation of a sentence. In stanza 2, he is describing other men who know they are going die DO NOT go gentle into that good night. The other refrain, “rage, rage against the dying of the light” is consistently an imperative phrase, always following words about why one should not go gentle. The variation of the context in which these two phrases lies makes it more than just a poem about how dying is horrible yet inevitable. It becomes a genius play of words that keeps the readers attentive.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:33 am
One Art
This poem addresses loss. The author almost seems to have a sense of peace about her as she thinks about the various losses in life. She says in the very beginning that losing is very easy to do. She goes in on say in the next two lines that some things seem to be done with such poor intent that the loss of them is hardly sad. Next she moves on to talk about the frequency of loss. We lose something every day and many of us have simply learned to just accept that as a part of life. It certainly seems as though Elizabeth has done so. Next she describes the progression of lose to the point where we actually practice it. As the poem comes to a close it becomes apparent that the loss which inspired this poem on loss was that of a close friend, husband, boyfriend, parent, etc. She tries to cope with this devastating loss by simply saying that loss has happened to her before and that by now she should be and claims to be used to it and a master at it.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:52 am
I really like the quote, “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and thought has found words.” I find this to be true, because many times I have feelings that I cannot easily express in words. The reason why it is such an obstacle is because I am trying to go from emotions to words without any thinking. It is so important to think through what I am feeling so that I can articulate it in an understandable way. Typically, when we translate our emotions into words in a beautiful style it evolves into poetry. The Villanelle uses repetitive line and conveys specific messages and feelings throughout stanza. The poet of a Villanelle intentionally chooses what he wants the lines that will be repeated to say. Choosing those phrases helps the reader depict the emotion that the poet has contemplated and is expressing through words. It would not be a very clear poem if there was not the middle man of though, and therefore I think Frost made a brilliant point.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I was once very opposed to highly structured poetry, just because it seemed that poetry was something with out structure, but now i see poetry as any other form of art and art certainly has structure. In this case the villanelle was a fun form to write in, and i think gave us a breath of fresh air in comparison to the less structured free verse. It is easy for me to see now how the villanelles were considered a popular cultural icon back in the day; they are easier to write and many abstract and creative rhymes can come out of them. It is interesting to think that in one point in history the pop culture involved the creation of villanelles rather than music hit singles. As far as the form went i found it fun to write, knowing what certain lines were going to be before you even got to them was interesting and nice. It was cool because you were forced to look ahead and write for the lines that you knew had to be there. The repetition was enjoyable to me, if you used creative enough first lines, than you could give different angles to them throughout the whole poem that constantly kept the reader thinking. Overall i would probably have to say that i enjoyed villanelles more than sonnets simply because i felt they were easier to write.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:26 am
I suppose I do agree with Frost in general. However, I don’t think that the villanelle is an epitomic example of this idea. It can be. But because of the form and its restrictions, not everyone can pull off a villanelle that expresses the truth of the thought of emotion.
Dylan Thomas’ villanelle, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” however, does seem to fulfill Frost’s definition of poetry, in my humble opinion.
I am particularly amazed at the effectiveness of the final stanza of the poem. Thomas seems to be speaking to an unknown listener/reader until the last stanza, where he says “And you, my father…”
This revelation throws the whole poem into a much more personal light because I can relate to the emotion of the poem more directly. It also causes the reader to look back at the rest of the poem and rethink the meaning of it, and really delve into the thought of the emotion behind this beautiful poem.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I really like the Villanelle form. It is strikingly different from the free verse which we looked at last week. It’s unique structure, and the order which it portrays really set it apart from other forms of poetry. I anticipated it being quite difficult to write, and given the rhyme scheme and repeating line structure this would make sense. However, in practice it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it might be. Maybe I merely got “lucky” or didn’t do a very good job, but it didn’t seem all that much harder than writing a short lyric poem or something of that nature. I enjoyed the experience of writing one much more than I thought I would. One of the other things that is interesting about the Villanelle is it’s subject matter. It seems that it’s repitious style is uniquely suited to dealing with fears, dreams, and obsessions.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and thought has found words.” – ok so it seems Fronts had some insightful info on poetry, but I think I agree more with this statement when applied to the Villanelle. In contrast to my lost blog, my feelings toward the villanelle are on the other end of the spectrum. Free verse, as I stated before, isn’t artistic to me. When applied to frosts quote, ANYTHING could be poetry. A sentence that comes out of my mouth in an emotional conversation can be poetry…but not thought provoking, not “poetry”. The villanelle was a pain to write. It was a lengthy process of sitting with my forehead resting on my hand, as if I were sleeping, stuck in the world of knowing I HAVE to write something but nothing coming out. “You can’t push art!” but it is this thought presses that draws that line for me when defining what “poetry” is. My villanelle is just that…mine. But to another, it could be “theirs” – relating and touching them with the same words, but in a different light or feeling. I guess it’s hard to put into words at times, but in looking at free verse compared to a villanelle, I raise two questions:
-is there such a thing as creating art JUST for arts sake?
‘and
-can you create art without being political?
Now I know this last question is a stretch, but it depends on your definition of “political”. When I say “Political”, I don’t mean it as dealing with power and democracy, but as a social reflection and awareness to cultural materialism of our time.
So to place this last question in motion -is there some political statement (maybe how the author was raised, his religious beliefs, his views on materialism and art…) made when an author decides to use a form such as a villanelle as apposed to free verse?
Just…ya’ know…throwin’ that out there.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Although I am new to writing villanelles and have only ever written one, I sincerely enjoyed writing in this form. My tendency is to favor the structured works of poetry. To me, this structure demonstrates the true creativity and intellect of a poet to be able to adapt his or her ideas and emotions into the most artistic phrases to convey the themes that he or she intended, integrating them into a specific format. When I first began writing my villanelle, I felt as though I kept trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. I tried to force my thoughts into awkward phrases and simply cut not get it to fit just right. But as I continued to work with my ideas more and more, over time I was able to find the correct peg to fit into the hole just right. The villanelle can be a challenge or a “killer” to write, and it may take a lot of time to work out. But I admire the complexity and the originality it takes for one to create this work of poetry.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
There was no poems presented this week, so I’m not exactly sure what to blog on. So, I decided to write the villanelle I wrote and talk a little about some of the help I got in editing it.
I do not know what I once knew so well
I still know that I know what I see
And what it means I cannot tell.
A sunset, a face, my hometown, a seashell
These are all blurred deep inside of me
I do not know what I once knew so well
It becomes so difficult not to dwell
On a world with such meaning- a tall oak tree
And what it means I cannot tell
My mind is gone, it’s like it fell
If only I could buy it back, for a small fee
I do not know what I once knew so well
I struggle to think, I’m in my own hell
Good or bad just let me be free
And what it means I cannot tell
I want to be back, don’t make me yell
My life is crumbling, won’t it leave me be?
I do not know what I once knew so well
And what it means I cannot tell.
That is my villanelle. It was difficult for me mainly because it was my first real poem I ever wrote, but I got a friend to look at it and I have many improvements to make. I liked the peer editing and I believe I have gained some confidence with poetry after this experience.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
The villanelle is pretty difficult to write and articulate an emotion or idea. I know when I was trying to write, most of my lines were confined by the rhyming word that I chose. I am sure that a talented wordsmith could overcome this obstacle, but as for me, my ideas could not be perfectly articulated in each line. So I think that the villanelle makes us focus on the point of the entire poem instead of focusing on idea presented line by line. Because of the structure, the reader can only read and understand the poem after they read the whole thing.
Another aspect of the villanelle is the statement that the poet chooses to be the repeating lines. There has to be a lot of care and revision in choosing those lines because they will be repeated in every stanza. They have to make sense separately and create a thought when put together.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I feel as though I find it much easier to write a villanelle than a free verse poem. That might sound quite odd to most people, but in all actuality, for me, it is true. I like the somewhat strict format because that way I am able to compose my most important repeated lines and then i just write a list of words that rhyme with each. Then, I proceed to move on to construct my poem around the words that rhyme. Even though that may seem like a very regimented way to construct a poem, it seems to work well and the phrases and words flow together with the original theme. Reflecting on Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art”, the step-by-step and flow through her thought processes and time goes to show her talent. Her way with the vilanelle poetry form is exquisite and especially her portrayal of her defense mechansim in the sixth stanza has me at a standstill. It somewhat makes me want to laugh because she makes her joking attitude for getting over a man a lighthearted feeling, yet she still makes it known that she is covering up her deeper feelings. For example, in the sixth stanza, Bishop comes right out with placing her feelings within the parenthesis, as well as telling herself that she must write it down that losing her man is not a disaster. It is so evident and easily seen that to her, it is a disaster and she really does miss her guy friend. It is interesting because it is a huge defense mechansim, especially for a woman, to put up a barrier and make things look like they are not hurting by somewhat joking, but they really are a bother.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
After our discussion in class today, I have a number of thoughts regarding tightly structured poetry such as villanelles and loosely structured (or, not structured at ll) poetry written in free verse.
One, I think it’s important to remember that art is subjective. There is no way to get around that. I will never understand modern art; to me it looks like someone threw a paint can at a canvas and called it art. However, there are people out there who find it meaningful, and who pay to have it hanging in their living rooms. They wouldn’t have it there if they didn’t like it, and most of the time it’s not painted by anyone particularly famous so there’s not even a name behind it that’s worth paying for it. They just appreciate it for what it is.
What I like about free verse is that it opens up poetry to anyone. It says that while you may not be a very gifted writer, you can still be an artist by expressing what you feel. To me, free verse isn’t just writing down what you feel at the moment (although I suppose sometimes that’s what people do), it’s about finding a way to articulate how you feel in the best way. You take the time to carefully pick the words you use to make your poem beautiful in how it sounds as well as making it “available” and understandable to those who read it. These poems may not stand the test of time, and they may not have been difficult to construct, but I think there is a danger in then making them out to be less of an art than other poems just because they don’t rhyme.
I’ll shortly compare this to theatre and then stop talking…There is a haughtiness often found in theatre by people who say that light, “fluffy” purely-for-entertainment-style theatre isn’t meaningful, isn’t challenging, and is a waste of time. This happens to be the kind of theatre I enjoy the most. What’s wrong with bringing a smile to people’s faces? Maybe it won’t be a piece of theatre they remember forever. But it will have allowed them to forget about the worries of their life and to be drawn in to another world for a couple of hours. And I think that’s worth something.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
You’re certainly right, Professor Perrin—those villanelles ARE killers to write. I felt so constrained by the structure and the rhyme pattern, yet I know that the structure was good for me. I’ve always worked best under a set of rules or guidelines; it lets me express creativity in the craftsmanship instead of in the unique form.
I’m also worried about the villanelle’s ability to be serious. My poem (at least, if not others) seem cutesy and Dr. Seuss-esque because of the repetition and rhyming. Yet “One Art,” even with its repetition and rhyme scheme, can be so deep and poignant. How can one form of poetry lend itself to both extremes?
What have I learned about poetry through the process of creating my own poem? Next time I’m critiquing a poem, I’ll certainly be more gracious. Poets put hours of time and effort into their works, yet we think we can glance over them in a minute and understand the intricacies the poet planned.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
In the poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” by Dylan Thomas, there is this sense of paradox between night and day. The diction of this poem portrays this paradox. Light and sight are contrasted with Night. This paradox is like a cycle of life. The poem flips from one extreme to the other extreme. Just as each day has a nighttime and a daytime, our lives have periods of darkness and periods of walking in light. There are times when we have no idea what is going on or where we are headed, and there are times when we know what and where we are going. There are bad times and good times. There are hard times and easy times.
This poem is also written from a son to a father. There is so much emotion wrapped up into this poem. The son is pleading with his father to not go into death gently, but to fight until the end. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” There is a sense of hope, but also desperation in this poem. The hope side is the son knowing that death would ultimately bring life because his father would no longer struggle with his blindness and he would be no longer be a slave to it. Yet, the son does not want his father to die because he needs him.
April 11th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
When first introduced to the villanelle and the constriction of its form, I was unsure as to how I might go about interacting with this type of poetic expression. I tend to migrate toward the free verse, because I felt that it allows a poet the most liberty to express himself in whatever way he likes. In becoming more familiar with the villenalle, however, I can see that its form speaks almost as much as its linguistic content, and villenalles can convey any variety of messages in a powerful way.
I’m particularly struck by Bishop’s “One Art.” Not only does she adeptly work with villanelle form, but she incorporates an attractive rhyme scheme, making the entire piece a distinct and memorable read. She speaks on a matter many of her readings can readily identify with, “the art of losing,” which “isn’t hard to master.” The poem takes the reader through waves of different loses the speaker has endured, each loss becoming progressively worse as the poem continues. Ending several stanzas is the constant refrain in this villanelle, “the art of losing isn’t hard to master.”
Yet as the poem draws to an end, Bishop concludes it with a statement that simultaneously sounds melodic and frantic: “The art of losing’s not too hard to master, though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.” The rhythmical scheme prevails even to these last lines, but the insertion of “write it!” and “disaster” indicate a loss of control on the part of the speaker.
“One Art” is an intriguing piece that is well enhanced by its villanelle form.
April 12th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I think it is interesting how Bishop uses hyperbole to make her point in “One Art”. The whole time you read the villanelle and it seems as though the act of losing things is of little importance to her. In fact, she almost seems to celebrate losing things, as if to ensure that it has no control over her emotions (it isn’t a “disaster” to lose the cities she loves). When I was reading this I felt incredulous, like she was being facetious to the extreme. And in a way, she was. The last stanza gives a glimpse into her true thought process in that losing can be a serious matter, a disaster. I thought it was brilliant.
Writing my villanelle took me quite some time because I wanted it to be more symbolic. Coming up with the first and third lines was difficult, but once I had them and set up the structure of the rest of the poem it was simpler. I must admit, although I am no poet, that this was probably one of my favorite poems I have written, both to write and to hear out loud. It was a very satisfying exercise, and I can truly appreciate the effort that goes into writing a poem with such structure.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Already a somewhat a confused soul, I have often found it hard to express myself. Over the years, hard work and the will to learn have given me discipline, and ability to make up in dedication where I am lacking in gift. Poetry, in my experience, has always been born out of extreme anguish. Long before I even knew of the designation “poetry,” my soul, longing to burst forth, has created what I now know to be poetry. Sitting, staring at the white lined paper, and trying to create a Villanelle was most intimidating, and yet, because the Villanelle has some kind of form and order to it, I felt that at least I know that I am confined to X, Y, and Z, thus having freedom from a universe of possibility. So I have written a Villanelle, and though I know that it needs much work, I can see myself drawing on this form of poetry in my future.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Villanelle’s are probably one of my favorite forms I have recently discovered. This class has definitely opened my mind as far as stretching my boundaries as far as form, and therefor vocabulary, are concerned, and the villanelle is perhaps one of the most demanding form I have yet encountered.
When I first started writing my piece, which involved stealing someone’s identity, I started writing like every other poem I had written. I started noticing that the rhyme scheme was much more demanding than usual, and I became frustrated with that, but this made slant rhyme my friend. Not only that, but I discovered an evolution in the rhyme due to slant rhyme, with each line getting closer and closer to the feeling I wanted to portray.
After bothering with the rhyme scheme for quite a while, I was displeased with something in the piece. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it seemed that the body of the poem was weak. I then realized the importance of the 1st and 2nd refrains. These mak the skeleton of the piece. Without strong refrains, the piece reflects their weakness. It was comparable to the thesis of a paper. It should be stated strongly and be brought together at the end to sew everything together.
After wrestling with these two concepts, I was quite satisfied with how everything turned out, but I know there is a big step between me and the perfect villanelle, should such a thing even exist…
April 13th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
After reading One Art the one thought that remained in my mind was self-denial. It definitely seems as if she sees the glass half empty. In the first stanza she claims that eh, so many things are going to be lost so to lose something is really not a big deal at all. Everyday we lose something like keys, household things, time, no biggie. But than it has the domino effect, loss starts off small but day by day, month by month, we lose more and bigger; things like places and names, and where it was you” I think those words are referring to home and family, people and places that matter,and make you you, memories, friends, ect. In the next stanza she begins to lose possessions, homes, cities, old habits and traditions. She misses them but claims that its still not a big deal, but in the last stanza she shares her loss of losing “him”, and how she can’t lie about how that is a big deal to her…
April 14th, 2008 at 10:27 am
I thought it was very difficult to write a villanelle style poem because of the guidelines that had to be followed. At first I was so confused into how I was going to write on a topic that I pulled out of a hat on the topic of “trusting God.” The longer I sat and pondered about what to write the worse it sounded. Eventually I found it a bit easier to write the villanelle if I would create the 1st and 2nd refrain and then fill in the poem with the required lines and then write the rest of the poem stemming off of the those lines. This system made it a lot easier for me to write and it also sounded a lot better than when I was just trying the write from top bottom. I wonder how Robert Frost, Dylan Thomas and Elizabeth Bishop write villanelles. Do they have a system or are they just that good and can write from top to bottom in a matter of minutes!
April 14th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I love the rhythm of villanelles. They differ from free verse in their restrictive format, but in a way that makes them so much more impressive when one is done well, with the message conveyed naturally and conversationally. Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle” is a perfect example of the unique kind of profundity and elegance that a villanelle can hold. In this poem the speaker admonishes the young and the old alike to not lose the potential spirit of their meaningful lives, whether they’ve discovered how meaningful and profound their lives can be or not. I love how the middle four stanzas address a different type of men: “wise men,” “good men,” “wild men,” “grave men,” and finally the speaker’s father. The villanelle’s format brings the last line back, and gives the speaker’s words clarity. He is speaking to his father, it turns out, and he does not want him to go without a fight. But more than that, he is using these examples of other kinds of men to specifically show that no one way is right in how you live. The wise should learn to let go sometimes, the good should not let small mistakes of the past haunt them, the wild should learn restraint before its too late, and the grave should learn to find joy in life. It is uncertain of which of these men his father is, but he is obviously very moved by his father’s fight to live.
April 15th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
When writing my villanelle I realized the immense weight that is placed on the first and third lines of the poem. They had to describe the essence of the poem. What did I want to pound into the head of my reader? They had to be interesting enough that, when repeated, they still held the reader’s attention. They had to end with words that could easily produce more rhyming words for future lines. Also they had to be able to convey the meaning and depth of the poem in new and enlightening ways as they are repeated with different stanzas. For the longest time I sat racking my brain and searching our poetry book to find lines that would fulfill all these requirement. I felt so much pressure to construct those 2 little lines. After I felt satisfied with the lines I had chosen, it was a relief when I got to repeat them. I’d get to the third line of a stanza, realize I already knew the content of that line, and breath a sigh of relief. I didn’t have to worry about rhyming the last word or figuring out the syllable count. It struck me as interesting how involved I got with those two little lines. They determined my villanelle. Now as I read through the villanelle section of our book I am more aware of the first and third lines and pay special attention to what meaning they may be bringing to the villanelle. I ask myself: why did the author chose those two lines to be repeated? What authority do they carry thoughout the rest of the poem?
April 16th, 2008 at 9:27 am
I really like the quote, “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and thought has found words.” I find this to be true, because many times I have feelings that I cannot easily express in words. The reason why it is such an obstacle is because I am trying to go from emotions to words without any thinking. It is so important to think through what I am feeling so that I can articulate it in an understandable way. Typically, when we translate our emotions into words in a beautiful style it evolves into poetry. The Villanelle uses repetitive line and conveys specific messages and feelings throughout stanza. The poet of a Villanelle intentionally chooses what he wants the lines that will be repeated to say. Choosing those phrases helps the reader depict the emotion that the poet has contemplated and is expressing through words. It would not be a very clear poem if there was not the middle man of though, and therefore I think Frost made a brilliant point.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
The structure of a villanelle really allows a writer to be creative. It allows a poet to dance around a topic, expanding on its idea within the safety of a repeated theme with which to return. Where it is a common difficulty for a person to write in depth and not go on tangents of thought and non-poignant arguments, the villanelle allows a person a freedom from responsibility, because the structure provides that security for them. That is not to say that writing a good villanelle is easy. The structure provides an anchor; it allows one to spin around, survey the land, and be free from the fear of drifting into the rocky, ship-sinking shore.
April 16th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
The poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” says quite a lot considering the fact that the form of a Villanelle has such a strict form. The poem actually seems quite free. The speaker of this poem is someone who seems to be speaking to someone who is near and dear to them. It almost as though the speaker is pleading with his father to keep on living and making the most out of the life that he [the father] has been given. The poem reminds me of how as Christians we are supposed to live our lives in thankfulness that God has given us another breath to keep on living. It seems to have a tone of desperate urgency. The speaker his father slip away which is hard for any child to witness a parent go through. In the poem the speaker gives examples of men of all sorts that are living life and raging “into that good night”. Even the Wild and grave men fight death and make sure that each day is lived to the fullest.
April 16th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
I believe that the poetry form: Villanelle really parallels the above statement. Villanelles are definitely emotion, and they are definitely a thought that has found words. I think that throughout the process of writing my own Villanelle I really have gained an appreciation for trying to put my thoughts into words. It’s very hard to communicate meaning through words that you may not have in your vocabulary. Throughout the process, I was challenged by using words that went together, but this made it even more powerful in the end. By knowing that I had to make everything flow and rhyme I was even more encouraged to make my thoughts work on paper. The form of Villanelle is really a great way for me to appreciate poetry. I enjoyed trying to write this way because there were enough guidelines, but not so many that I couldn’t even write. I think that this is a form that I can use more frequently. I was worried at first about writing, but now I have a new appreciation.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
I really enjoyed reading “One Art,” in the first few stanzas, however, I did not entirely pick up on her sarcasm, I just figured she was trying to express her feelings towards being upset over something that occurs every day. I looked at the poem in a sense of getting lost, or losing something for the sake of doing it. It can be fun at times to get lost on purpose while on a trip just to see where you end up and what experiences you may have. As the poem progresses, though, I began to get the sense that a sense of loss isn’t very easy to come to terms with though it may not be hard to master. Like the “crescendo of loss” that we talked about during the presentation, the objects that the subject looses keep getting bigger and more important to the point where she stumbles over her original point that losing isn’t a disaster. Losing car keys and spending an hour looking for them is annoying and inconvenient, but, as she says, not a disaster. However, a love that is lost is something that can feel like a disaster and it is interesting that she cannot entirely keep up her sarcasm once she reaches that particular point in her poem.
April 18th, 2008 at 10:49 am
I was very interested in the villanelle because of the strict and rigid structure. I thought that I would like to write a villanelle more than a free verse because I am more accustomed and comfortable with restrictive guidelines. However, when actually writing the poem, I found it very difficult compared to a free verse poem about the same thing. I felt like I could not put the words that I wanted just because it had to rhyme. I think that for certain topics, villanelles fit, and make the poem better. It really depends on the subject and topic, and I think that one should only determine whether to write a villanelle or a free verse poem once really considering what is being written about. The exercise we did in class illustrated this, in that we wrote both a villanelle and a free verse on the same topic and we could see the contrasts between the two, and the different things with each form that enhanced the subject matter.
April 18th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I thought that the Emily Bishop poem was so fabulous. The was she compaed loosing something small to loosing a person really intriged me. I thought It was was interesting how she started out small saying how she would loose her keys which everyone can compare to, but then move onto loosing a person. This slow graduale leap helped the reader comprehend what Bishop was trying to say in simple terms but using something that everyone could compare with ( loosing something small) but then work her way up to something bigger and much more grand, a person. I really liked this imagery because when talking about loosing a person, no everyone knows what that feels like. I also liked how half way though the poem, Bishop changed from using second person to first person when she finally started saying “I’.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
To be completely honest, I can’t say that I am such a fan of the villanelle. Reading villanelles written by real, talented poets is great because obviously they work out well. However, it is such a restrictive form that in the process of writing one, I found myself being forced to use unnatural language to make sure that the form was preserved. I also had to use words to rhyme that didn’t really sound as good as others that I could have used just because they have to rhyme. Like I said, legitimate villanelles sound great when the form is followed well and it flows perfectly, but if one word makes a line too long, or if one word does not rhyme perfectly with the line two above or two below, it can ruin the entire poem. That is what is so great about free verse, everything written is the choice of the poet. In this way, the structure can allude to the content, like a poem about a river being long and winding. It just seems like too much of the villanelle is artificially produced for the purpose of the form. Until I am a professional poet (which will be never) I don’t think I will ever appreciate the villanelle for what it’s worth.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I thought the villanelle a very interesting poem to read and write. Personally i enjoyed writing the villanelle. I think that i liked this type of poem so much because it has such a unique structure. It took a lot of thought and processing to make the rhyme scheme and form of the villanelle. To write a good villanelle it takes a lot of skill and I can fully see that after writing one myself. The poem “Do not Go Gentle into That God Night” is one of my favorite poems which we have read this far. I love the “fight” in this poem. It speaks of hope and resilience which every man wants to relate to. One thing that I really liked about the poem was the starting of three stanzas describing men in different ways, “Good, Wild, Grave”. I feel that this shows the different sides of men but it also shows that all men face death aswell.
April 20th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I enjoyed the challenge of writing a villanelle. I have written poetry in the past, but never attempted to compose a villanelle because I was not aware of such a category. The poem that I produced is not a true villanelle because the ryhme scheme is not genuine, the second lines do not ryhme with one another, but the first and third lines do. The subject I was dealing with was foreign to me, but I thought that I managed to write a solid piece that tackled the issue. I believe it is difficult to write a villanelle, not only must you produce your thoughts on paper, but then the ryhme scheme must also work. A poet is forced to find the right word, one that will fit into the scheme and convey the intended message. If thoughts can be clearly communicated and the ryhme scheme is correct, the writer should be very happy. I agree with the above stated quote from Robert Frost. Poetry deals with emotions and issues that face humanity, but without meditating on those topics and then placing those thoughts in words, poetry has little impact or meaning. I had an idea of what poetry was before this class, but it was challenged to grow and deepen. Some works have flown over my head, but there have been some that have hit the mark, causing my brain to think and mind to wrestle with issues. The challenge of producing a villanelle has left me with a desire to continue to try my hand at villanelles. I intend to take my first one and work on it some more in order to create a complete rhyme scheme and truly say that I have composed a villanelle. I also hope to continue writing poetry or at least jot a line down sometime in the day, something that could be expanded upon and molded into a complete work of my imagination.
April 21st, 2008 at 8:08 pm
I learned a lot from writting a villanene. A villanene has a certain structure that must be followed in creating on. The hardest part that I had in writting my poem was coming up with rhymes. The poem had to have an aba rhyme scheme, so the writter’s brain has to switch back and forth between the two sets of rhyming. The writer also has to make sure the ryhming words fit the context. It was also a challenge to come up with ideas for the poem because you had to write a poem using another person’s ideas. The ideas were eighter really bord or really supsefect. I got a bord topic which gave me the freedom to come up with enough ideas to write a forteen line poem. From this assignment I gain respect for a poet because I know how much time it takes to write a poem.
May 5th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I love how Bishop successfuly captured an uncontrolable feeling into a very structured poetic form. Her repetition of refrains brought a meaning of how cyclical this idea is… she can get so close to something… close enough to touch it, But does not reach out to do so. I think she chooses not to because it would make her vulnerable By this choice, she has missed out on many blessings that come with being vulnerable, such as intimate relationships.
I have developed a new appreciation for poetry through writing my own Villanelle. It was very challenging, and I found the words did not flow well when they had to fall into such structured lines. Bishop was truly gifted with words.