What is a Villanelle

Villanelle

• Villanelles have nineteen lines divided into five three-line stanzas and a sixth stanza with four lines.
• Villanelles are usually written in iambic pentameter,
• Ten syllables per line, with every other syllable stressed, starting with the second syllable.

       Example:   "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" is written in a very specific form, the villanelle. The second line of this poem is
                           Old age should burn and rave at close of day

• The meter, however, isn't a compulsion in order to make it a villanelle
• However villanelles are required to have a specific rhyme scheme and two lines that appea as refrains
• Like refrains in songs, they get repeated over and over
• The rhyme scheme is ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA,
• So there are only two rhymes that end all the lines.
• The first line and third line which act as refrains, are repeated four times eac

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