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Thursday 19 November 2020

Developing a Villanelle

 .A villanelle is a poetic form with nineteen lines and a strict pattern of repetition and a rhyme scheme. Each villanelle is comprised of five tercets (i.e., a three-line stanza) followed by one quatrain (a stanza with four lines). The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated in an alternating pattern as the final line of each next tercet; those two repeated lines then form the final two lines of the entire poem.' (Literary Devices: 2020)



Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas is a very famous villanelle



Felt the shadow, creeping, crawling upon my back
Hot breath upon my ear, loud and urgent
The spirit of death was coming, I was under attack

Spent the night, screaming, dying silently, anxiety attack
Slithered under the bed, curled up, shaking
Felt the shadow, creeping, crawling upon my back

My eyes wide open, forevermore, now the eternal insomniac
The winter cold had seeped into my veins
The spirit of death was coming, I was under attack

Now the window open, evil draft, a sign of the maniac
Was it within me, does it exist beyond my shattered mind?
Felt the shadow, creeping, crawling upon my back

Falling through the air, my life in flashback
I returned to the womb sucking in the sweet solace
The spirit of death was coming, I was under attack

Time ran out, I knew I had been running
No escape, the hand of fate had chosen and now I must go
Felt the shadow, creeping, crawling upon my back
The spirit of death was coming, I was under attack

This is my first draft of a villanelle, this form works well and the scheme is correct however it need work on the composition and concept.  I think I could make this stronger with a narrative that becomes more urgent throughout to finally end on the two repeating lines. Considering this was a 20 minutes exercise I think it was not a bad start!















References

http://www.literarydevices.com/villanelle/

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