Villanelle Poetry Form Dates Back to the 16th Century

The Villanelle poem is one that dates back to the 16th Century and comes to America from France. Jean Passerat was one of the earliest French poets to popularize this form. When it arrived in America during the 1800s, English poet Oscar Wilde began using the form, also. In the beginning, it was known to be an Italian rustic dance.

In the recently decades, poets from Britian and America, including Theodore Roethke and Elizabeth Bishop, have been known to use this form. It's common among poets to vary the use of the repeated lines. This makes the poem less repetitious to the more traditional form.

A Villanelle is easy to write if you'd like to try it out yourself. First, remember that with any form, especially fixed form, there are always rules to follow. Don't let this limit your inspiration, and you'll always have ideas for your poetry. An "/" means the break of a line.

1) Lines are groups into five tercets (each has 3 lines) and a concluding quatrain (4 lines).

2) Lines may be any length.

3) The rhyme scheme is important. It has two of them: The first is aba and it contines with every tercet until you get to the last one. The first and last line of each trecet will have the same rhyme scheme. (cat, scat, bat, that, etc.) The last stanza will be four lines, and lines 1 & 3 will be lines 3 & 4 in the quatrain.

4) Two lines will always be repeated throughout this poem, but it is tricky. 1st Line/1st Stanza: repeated as the last line of the 2nd and 4th stanzas & the second-to-last-line in the quatrain.
3rd Line/1st Stanza: repeated as the last line of the 3rd & 5th stanzas and as the last line in the concluding quatrain.

5) This is a difficult style to learn, but it's easy once you have your rhyming lines.
Think of the pattern in this way. A-1 is your 1st line, B is your 2nd line and A-2 is your 3rd line. So, with this you'd have:

A-1/ B/ A-2
A (new line)/ B (new line)/ A-1
A (new line)/ B (new line)/ A-2
A (new line)/ B (new line)/ A-1
A (new line)/ B (new line)/ A-2
A (new line)/ B (new line)/ A-1/ A-2

6) When it comes to meter, the villanelle is not one of the forms particular on it. Meter is where you count beats per line, and you have the option of making your villanelle song-like quality. For the majority of villanelles, iambic tetrameter (eight beats per line and fourth between six beats per line and seven beats per line) are used. Be creative with meter if you're looking to try something new.