Journal #16

-Villanelle-

What is a Villanelle?
A Villanelle is a type of poem that entered poetry in the 19th century. The villanelle has 19 lines, 5 stanzas of three lines and 1 stanza of four lines with two rhymes and two refrains. The 1st, then the 3rd lines alternate as the last lines of stanzas 2,3,and 4, and then stanza 5 (the end) as a couplet.

Structure:
line 1 - a - 1st refrain
line 2 - b
line 3 - a - 2nd refrain
line 4 - a
line 5 - b
line 6 - a - 1st refrain (same as line 1)
line 7 - a
line 8 - b
line 9 - a - 2nd refrain (same as line 2)
line 10 - a
line 11 - b
line 12 - a - 1st refrain (same as line 1)
line 13 - a
line 14 - b
line 15 - a - 2nd refrain (same as line 2)
line 16 - a
line 17 - b
line 18 - a - 1st refrain (same as line 1)
line 19 - a - 2nd refrain (same as line 2)

Example
Musical and sweet, the villanelle,
like light reflected in a gentle rhyme,
moves to the ringing of a silver bell,

Its form creating soft and tender spells.
Like the singing of distant silver chimes,
musical and sweet, the villanelle
 
Flows through the heart, and builds a magic spell
from sunlight and from shadows, and, sublime,
moves to the ringing of a silver bell.
 
It never arcs into the sharp loud yell
of vast pipe organs. Soft its climb.
Musical and sweet, the villanelle,
 
Like a tiny and translucent shell
catching sunlight in the summer time,
moves to the ringing of a silver bell.
 
Soft and gentle, tender and so frail,
like light pouring through petals of the lime,
musical and sweet, the villanelle
moves to the ringing of a silver bell.

Sondra Ball
(Poem title unknown)
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My attempt at a Villanelle...

It is the day

It is the day
To the beginning of the rest of my life
The beginning to the choices and decisions I will  make

Its forming like a storm in the desert
So rapidly and fast moving
It is the day

These decisions will have impact on my life
It will tell me where I am to go
To the beginning of the rest of my life

Suddenly everything is in my hands
Not of others, simply all  mine
It is the day

It is my opportunity to change my life
For what I would like it to be
To the beginning of the rest of my life

It is my time to have control
Of where I will be taking myself in life
It is the day
To the beginning of the rest of my life