3. Terms 17-23
17. Shakespearian or English Sonnet
A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter.
The Shakespearean or English sonnet is
arranged as three quatrains and a final
couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg.
18. The Petrarchan or Italian Sonnet A fourteen-line
poem in iambic pentameter. It is divided into
two parts: an eight-line octave and a six-line
sestet, rhyming abba abba cde cde or abba
abba cd cd cd (or other combination of cde).
4. 19. Stanza
A division or unit of a poem that is repeated in the
same form--either with similar or identical patterns or
rhyme and meter, or with variations from one stanza
to another.
20. Couplet
A pair of rhymed lines that may or may not
constitute a separate stanza in a poem.
Shakespeare's sonnets end in rhymed couplets, as in
"For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings /
That then I scorn to change my state with kings."
21. Quatrain
A four-line stanza in a poem, the first four lines and
the second four lines in a Petrarchan sonnet. A
Shakespearean sonnet contains three quatrains
followed by a couplet.
5. 22.Octave
An eight-line unit, which may constitute a
stanza; or a section of a poem, as in the
octave of a sonnet.
22.Sestet
A six-line unit of verse constituting a stanza
or section of a poem; the last six lines of
an Italian sonnet. Examples: Petrarch's "If it
is not love, then what is it that I feel," and
Frost's "Design."
9. Villanelle Conventions
19 lines
5 stanzas of three lines; final stanza of four
It has two rhyme sounds: A and B
It has two repeating lines
The first repeating line appears as line 1
(A1) and repeats in lines 6, 12, and 18.
The second repeating line appears as line
3 (A2) and repeats in lines 9, 15, and 19.
10. Pattern
St. 1A1 (first repeating line or refrain)
b
A2 (second repeating line or refrain)
St. 2a
b
A1 (repeat of line 1)
St. 3a
b
A2 (repeat of line 3)
St. 4a
b
A1 (repeat of line 1)
St. 5a
b
A2 (repeat of line 3)
St. 6a
b
A1 (repeat of line 1)
A2 (repeat of line 3)
11. St. 1A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,
b
A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
St. 2a
b
A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,
St. 3a
b
A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
St. 4a
b
A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,
St. 5a
b
A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
St. 6a
b
A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,
A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
12. St. 1A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,
b Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
St. 2a Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
b Because their words had forked no lightning they
A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,
St. 3a Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
b Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
St. 4a Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
b And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,
St. 5a Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
b Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
St. 6a And you, my father, there on the sad height,
b Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,
A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
13. St. 1A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,
b Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
St. 2a Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
b Because their words had forked no lightning they
A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,
St. 3a Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
b Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
St. 4a Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
b And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,
St. 5a Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
b Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
St. 6a And you, my father, there on the sad height,
b Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
A1 Do not go gentle into that good night,
A2 Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
14. Villanelles have no set rhythm or line length but the lines
are usually even. Iambic pentameter (de-TROIT x 5) is a
common rhythm for serious villanelles. The Thomas poem
is written in iambic pentameter (do NOT go GENtle INto
THAT good NIGHT). The trochee rhythm (BOS-ton) also
works well.
Eight to ten syllables per line is the most common length
but shorter or longer lines are okay too. The main goal is
to keep the rhythm regular.
For a light verse villanelle, anapest feet create a tripping
rhythm ( te-te-TUM, ser-e-NADE). Or use dactyl feet for a
marching or galloping effect (TUM-te-te, HAR-mo-ny).
16. 1. Choose a subject.
W. H. Auden, when asked whether the form or content came
first, replied, “At any given time, I have two things on my mind—
a theme that interests me and a problem of verbal form. The
theme looks for the right form; the form looks for the right
theme. When the two come together, I am able to start writing.”
Some subjects or themes that lend themselves well to the
villanelles:
Duality, for example two differing points of view, or two unlike
things or people forced together. Consider a poem about Christmas
in a prison or care home. Note the duality: happy time, sad place.
Ironic subjects. Actor, writer and poetry aficionado Stephen Fry
describes many villanelles as consisting of “a rueful, ironic
reiteration of pain or fatalism.”
Humorous subjects—especially those rooted in irony.
17. Choose a subject!
Add duality
1. Good and bad aspects of an 13. Your favorite TV show or book
early memory.
14. Your Hobbies
2. Your first kiss (sweet but
disastrous). 15. Celebrity news story
3. The pain of betrayal by a good 16. Politics (the left? The right? An
friend.
event?)
4. Your first pet (love and death).
5. Your parents (bad or good). 17. School (Drama)
6. Your siblings. 18. A death in the family.
7. Your children. 19. A death of a friend.
8. Your first love (what it might
20. The scariest moment of your life.
have been).
9. Your past love (broken heart) 21. The happiest moment of your life.
10. Your current love. 22. A moment which made you angry.
11. Lust.
18. 2. Write the two refrain lines.
This most important step of the villanelle-writing process will
largely determine the success of your poem. When composing the
two repeating lines keep the following in mind:
The end words of the two lines rhyme. The sound on which they end
will also be the ‘a’ rhyme sound in the non-repeating lines. Therefore
choose end words with a rhyme sound that’s easy to match.
The lines should resonate with a meaning that has the potential to
enlarge as the poem progresses.
The lines should be musical and pleasing to the ear.
The two lines need to come together effectively at the end of the poem.
Try beginning one or both refrain lines with a verb.
“Technically the trick of it seems to be to find a refrain pair that
is capable of run-ons, ambiguity, and ironic reversal” says Fry.
19. 2. Write the two refrain
lines (continued)
Draft multiple (4 or 5) rhyming couplets that express your
feeling or idea, or the heart of your concern.
Pick the couplet that combines originality and
expressiveness with some flexibility in the way those lines
could be used in combination with others.
“Technically the trick of it seems to be to find a refrain pair
that is capable of run-ons, ambiguity, and ironic reversal”
says Fry.
Together, the two lines should form a sentence or phrase
that will work to conclude your poem, but each must also
stand on its own or be flexible enough to be used with
other sentences or phrases.
20. 3. Write the villanelle form and
enter the repeating lines
St. 1A1 (first repeating line or refrain)
b
A2 (second repeating line or refrain)
St. 2a
b
A1 (repeat of line 1)
St. 3a
b
A2 (repeat of line 3)
St. 4a
b
A1 (repeat of line 1)
St. 5a
b
A2 (repeat of line 3)
St. 6a
b
A1 (repeat of line 1)
A2 (repeat of line 3)
21. 4. Decide on your “b” rhyme
sound.
Again choose a sound that has lots of rhyme
potential and that is different enough from rhyme
‘a’ to provide a pleasing contrast.
If you need some help finding rhymes, you can
always use a free on-line rhyming dictionary for
some help.
Rhymer
Rhymezone
22. Fill in your poem
5. Make lists of words that rhyme with the two sounds you
have chosen, particularly choosing words that will work with
your theme
.
A words B words
1
2
3
6. Compose the additional lines of your poem according to the
rhyme scheme, using ideas suggested by the words on your
list.
23. 7. Revise
Make changes to enhance and add meaning, not simply for the
sake of variety. “The repetition cannot be static,” says Frances
Mayes. “Each time a repeating line appears it should have added
significance.”
If this way of composing a poem seems contrived and non-
poetic, be reassured that you’re not the first person to feel this
way. Despite the seemingly un-poetic method of composing,
villanelles often appear spontaneous. Strive for such an effect,
even if it takes much crossing out, agonizing over, and rewriting
lines to get exactly what you’re after.
Once you’re familiar with writing by-the-rules villanelles, you
may be tempted to join poets who have written villanelles that
break the rules. Some poets leave out or add stanzas, rhyme only
some of the lines, or none at all, or even write in free verse. For
this assignment, please try to conform to the rules.
24. Tips
Use enjambment sometimes, so that
your repeated lines are less obvious.
Change the punctuation to alter
meaning.
Feel free to slightly modify the lines that
you set up for your original couplet.
Then, repeat this modification
throughout the poem (if you are
following the form of strict repetition), or
use the modifications to reflect
something (such as a progression of
internal emotions).
26. Sestina
Conventions
The sestina makes no demands on the poet in terms of meter or
rhyme or foot. Its requirements border on the mathematical and its
prescriptions are mainly syntactical.
In Questions of Possibility: Contemporary Poetry and Poetic
Form, David Caplan explains,
The opening stanza introduces six endwords […]
which repeat through the six sestets. Starting with the
second sestet, each stanza duplicates the previous
stanza’s endwords in the following order:
last, first, fifth, second, fourth, then third. […] By the
poem’s end, each end word appears in all six lines.
Finally […] the concluding [stanza] features two
endwords in each of its three lines, one as an endword
and one in the middle of the line (18).
27. Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop
1 A
2 B
3 C
4 D
5 E
6 F
1 F
2 A
3 E
4 B
5 D
6 C
1 C
2 F
3 D
4 A
5 B
6 E
31. Choose a topic from great first novel lines
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy
in its own way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans.
Constance Garnett)
I am an invisible man. —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
The past is a foreign country; they do things differently
there. —L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between (1953)
This is the saddest story I have ever heard. —Ford Madox
Ford, The Good Soldier (1915)
All this happened, more or less. —Kurt
Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of
space. —Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye (1988)
You better not never tell nobody but God. —Alice Walker, The
Color Purple (1982)
It was love at first sight. —Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961)
Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she
had turned into the wrong person. —Anne Tyler, Back When
We Were Grownups (2001)
32. Sore Throat Choosing End Words
Sestina
Choose at least some words that several different meanings: ex.
"mean”
Choose words that can be used as either nouns, verbs, or
adjectives: ex. "swell”
Choose one word that is so innocuous it can be put practically
anywhere. Prepositions are good for this: ex. "down”
Choose one polysyllabic word that is highly specific to your
subject matter. (This will be the hardest one to rotate but it will
contrast artistically with the others: ex. “Medicine”
Choose a word that either rhymes or alliterates with one of your
other words: ex. “well”
Choose a power-word, which will likely end your poem: ex “die”
33. Choose concrete nouns to
Demon include in your poem
Bug
Virus
These will be good
Neck descriptors in the
Throat poem
Tonsils
Mumps
Scarlet Fever
Strep Throat
Husband
Internet
Doctor
34. Write the Ending First
—Here is a list of the endwords:
mean, swell, down, medicine, well and die.
At this point, you don’t have to decide the order of the other
words because you are going to write the end of your poem first.
The trick to avoiding bad endings in a sestina is to write a
devastatingly brilliant ending and then work toward it. You can
always rewrite it if it turns out not to fit your needs.
Oh don't be mean! There must be medicine
I can put down this throat to make me well
or it will swell and swell until I die.
35. Start at the
beginning now!
First Stanza
This morning I woke up as if a mean A
demon in the night had slithered down B
my neck. My tonsils had begun to swell. C
I moaned; I coughed; I drank some medicine D
naively thinking I would soon feel well. E
Ten minutes on I still thought I might die. F
Now your order has been determined!
36. Second Stanza
"Oh come on silly. You're not going to die," F
my husband said. He wasn't being mean. A
The thing is, I'm the one who's always well. E
He isn't used to seeing me go down B
with nasty bugs or swallow medicine. D
"Soon," he said, "Once more you'll feel just swell." C
Note: try and avoid end-stopping all the lines, another common
beginner's mistake. Note that the first line continues into the second.
Also, line four flows into five.
37. Third Stanza
But my left tonsil continued to swell C
all morning. I knew no-one ever died F
of a sore throat, and yet no medicine D
was soothing it. What could this symptom mean? A
I started feeling more and more cast down B
and wondered if I would ever get well. E
Note the use of "swell” as a verb in this stanza.
Note that “die” changed to "died" in this stanza. All but the most purist
of sestina-writers would agree that this is acceptable.
38. Fourth Stanza
Only one thing to do: consult the well E
of information on the Internet. That swelling C
cyberspace would help me pin this down B
(or tell me just how long before I die). F
I googled sore throat symptom, and the meaning A
of this popped out on medicine.com D
The author has used "swelling" for "swell" and
"meaning" for "mean.” She has also really pushed
the boundaries by adding ".com" to "medicine.”
39. Stanzas five and six
It could be Mumps! And there's no medicine D
to take for that. Just waiting to get well E
but all the time in pain. What kind of mean, A
sadistic virus is this? This is swell: C
it could be Strep Throat. I could even die F
of Scarlet Fever. Now I'm feeling down. B
So in ten minutes I am going down B
to see the doctor. Maybe medicine D
will stop me feeling like I want to die. F
Oh to be strong, and tonsil-less, and well! E
Oh for a pill to reduce this nasty swelling. C
Oh for someone to tell me what this means. A
40. Now look back at the end stanza you wrote in the beginning:
Oh don't be mean! There must be medicine
I can put down this throat to make me well
or it will swell and swell until I die.
Take a moment to revise:
And if the mean Doc says no medicine AD
he can pour down this throat will make me well, BE
but time. Oh swell! All this pain and I can't die. CF
Thanks to Anna Evans, The Barefoot Muse, for help with writing a Sestina.
