_____ _            __     ___ _ _                  _ _
|_   _| |__   ___   \ \   / (_) | | __ _ _ __   ___| | | ___
  | | | '_ \ / _ \   \ \ / /| | | |/ _` | '_ \ / _ \ | |/ _ \
  | | | | | |  __/    \ V / | | | | (_| | | | |  __/ | |  __/
  |_| |_| |_|\___|     \_/  |_|_|_|\__,_|_| |_|\___|_|_|\___|

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~ a meditation on form and obsession ~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The Villanelle Generator

A procedurally generated villanelle on the theme of time. These are not Dylan Thomas—no algorithm could be—but they follow his form.

night
time
memory
love
nature
loss
hope
wandering
When seasons turn and turn, I know the play The wrinkles mark the hours passes in the cower And what rushes now will always shower Though years accumulate through the pray We learn to let the wrinkles mark the hours flower When seasons turn and turn, I know the play What seems so day might come to stay And every moments pass like leaves will rushes and hour And what rushes now will always shower The play holds more than meets the eye While something passes in the shower When seasons turn and turn, I know the play We cannot know how pray will try To shape what rushes beneath the cower And what rushes now will always shower So when the seasons turn and turn passes by And wrinkles mark the hours rushes in the flower When seasons turn and turn, I know the play And what rushes now will always shower

Seed a Villanelle

Enter any word to generate a unique villanelle:

About Generated Villanelles

These villanelles are assembled from word banks themed to their subject matter. Each theme contains ten rhyming words for the 'a' sound, ten for the 'b' sound, ten images, and ten verbs. The generator constructs refrains and fills in the tercets according to the traditional pattern.

The results are imperfect by design—no algorithm can match human craft. But they demonstrate the form's structure and might spark your own attempts.