_____ _ __ ___ _ _ _ _
|_ _| |__ ___ \ \ / (_) | | __ _ _ __ ___| | | ___
| | | '_ \ / _ \ \ \ / /| | | |/ _` | '_ \ / _ \ | |/ _ \
| | | | | | __/ \ V / | | | | (_| | | | | __/ | | __/
|_| |_| |_|\___| \_/ |_|_|_|\__,_|_| |_|\___|_|_|\___|
~~~~~~~~~~~~ a meditation on form and obsession ~~~~~~~~~~~~
The villanelle's demanding form has attracted poets who wanted to harness its obsessive, circling quality. These are some of the most celebrated examples.
Opening refrain: Do not go gentle into that good night
Closing refrain: Rage, rage against the dying of the light
Opening refrain: The art of losing isn't hard to master
Closing refrain: so many things seem filled with the intent / to be lost
Opening refrain: I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow
Closing refrain: I learn by going where I have to go
Opening refrain: I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead
Closing refrain: I think I made you up inside my head
Opening refrain: Time will say nothing but I told you so
Closing refrain: If I could tell you I would let you know
Opening refrain: They are all gone away
Closing refrain: There is nothing more to say
Opening refrain: A spirit moves, wood wood, wood wood
Closing refrain: and do his bloody work
Opening refrain: The art of losing isn't hard to master
Closing refrain: that their loss is no disaster
While the form dates to the Renaissance, the villanelle only became a major English-language form in the 20th century. Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle" (1951) remains the most famous example—a son's fierce plea to his dying father. Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art" (1976) uses the form for controlled grief. Sylvia Plath's "Mad Girl's Love Song" (1953) captures obsessive longing.
Contemporary poets continue to find new uses for the form, often loosening its rules while keeping its obsessive, repetitive quality.