VILLANELLE
A Villanelle is a French poetry form created by Jean Passerate (1534-1602). In this form there are six stanzas; the first five stanzas are three lines long, and the final stanza is four lines long. The first line and last line of the first stanza take turns repeating as the final line of the next four stanzas, and then are rejoined as the last two lines of the poem. The poem has a rhyme scheme of aba throughout, except in the last stanza where there is a slight variation. The last two lines may be slightly different than their predecessors.
By HD Silversmith
Despite my B.A. and M.A. in English, I know next to nothing about English or American poetry.
And I know absolutely zero about French poetry, as I realized (yet again) today, looking at the definition of "villanelle."
I don't write poetry, and I don't read it, either -- which isn't to say I don't like it. I've read the usual canonical works that someone with my background born in the 1960s would have read. I like Chaucer, even in middle English. I like Shakespeare. I like Milton. I like the Romantics (sort of). You can show me English poetry up through the nineteenth century, and I can still understand it. It still speaks to me on some level. The entire Victorian era speaks to me and strikes me as oddly and yet strikingly similar to our own.
Yes, I like Dead White Men. What can I say? I'm a product of my training and culture.
Despite being an ardent feminist and supporter of women writers, I'm less partial to female poets (yeah, I know: they absolutely have been overshadowed by their male counterparts). Emily Dickinson is admittedly gifted, the Brontes somewhat less so in their poetry but still notable ... but my appreciation is purely intellectual. It skates the surface, nothing more.
Moreover, the more contemporary the poetry is, the less I care for it. That's not judgment speaking there: that's pure, unmitigated ignorance on my part. I lose my bearings with contemporary poetry. I don't know what I like or dislike, I don't know how to assess it, I have no idea what's Good or Bad.
Maybe I need to start with a refresher course in poetry. Maybe I should begin, rather arbitrarily, in France with the villanelle?
