Villanelle

A nineteen-line form of obsessive return: two refrains circling through five tercets to a final quatrain.

Specifications & Metrics

type

Fixed poetic form

origin

Late medieval France (rustic song)

originator

Jean Passerat ('J'ay perdu ma Tourterelle', 1574)

meter

Usually iambic pentameter or tetrameter

lines count

19

Core Principles & Analysis

• Nineteen lines: five tercets and a closing quatrain on two rhymes.
• Two refrains alternate and then close the poem together in the final stanza.
• Dylan Thomas's 'Do not go gentle' made it a modern English classic.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Villanelle