Creating Meaning with Words
Creating Sound
Using Form
Mrs. Barnhart's Poetry Page
The villanelle is another closed form of poetry that you may use as a starting place for your ideas. The poem is arranged into five tercets (three line stanzas) and an ending quatrain (four line stanza). There is also a pattern of repetition between the first and third lines in the poem. Consider these two examples of villanelles and notice in what order the lines repeat.
"Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night"
Dylan Thomas
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, 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.
"The Waking"
Theordore Roethke
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside be, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
Discussion Questions:
What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of this form of poetry?
What do you think the message is of each of these poems?
What did the poets choose to use as symbols and what do they stand for?
How does the form help create the aural quality of the poems?
What is the tone of each poem and how did the poets achieve the tones?
