Poetry Notes: Villanelle and Terza Rima

 

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

A.P. English Literature 

Some things I want to go over with you before the test: 

The villanelle is a fixed form in poetry. It has six stanzas: five tercets (verses of three lines each, with the rhyme scheme aba),  ending with a final quatrain (four line verse). 

It utilizes two refrains: The first and the last lines of the first stanza alternates as the last line of the next four stanzas and then forms a final couplet in the quatrain.

An excellent example of a villanelle is “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas (page 871 in ENGLAND in Literature). 

Dylan Thomas was the premiere poet of Wales, noted for his outrageous drinking and carousing as well as brilliant poetry.  His poetry was noted for its musicality, with the words selected (in some of his plays) more for their beauty of sound rather than for their absolute meaning. 

The following poem was written for his dying father, whom he urged to fight against the dying of the light....

Do not go gentle into that good night, 

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 

Though wise men at their end know dark is right, 

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night. 

 Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, 

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, 

Do not go gentle into that good night. 

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight, 

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, 

Rage, rage against the blinding of the light. 

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, 

I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night. 

Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.

(1951)

	View Cart | Log In  Subscribe | More Info
	Advanced Search > ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas was born on October 27, 1914, in South Wales... More > Want more poems? Subscribe to our Poem-A-Day emails. FURTHER READING Dead Father Poems Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World by Sherman Alexie Lay Back the Darkness by Edward Hirsch Little Father by Li-Young Lee Mortality by William Knox My Father by Scott Hightower My Father on His Shield by Walt McDonald My Father's Hat by Mark Irwin Parents by William Meredith Renewal [Excerpt] by Chris Abani The Figure by Joseph Fasano The Gift by Li-Young Lee Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden To Her Father with Some Verses by Anne Bradstreet Whose Mouth Do I Speak With by Suzanne Rancourt Working Late by Louis Simpson Yesterday by W. S. Merwin Poems About Fathers 'The child is father to the man.' by Gerard Manley Hopkins The Last 4 Things [That hard thread] by Kate Greenstreet A Boy and His Dad by Edgar Guest A Situation for Mrs. Biswas by Prageeta Sharma A Story by Philip Levine A Story by Li-Young Lee American Primitive by William Jay Smith Blood by Naomi Shihab Nye Confessions: My Father, Hummingbirds, and Frantz Fanon by Benjamin Alire Sáenz Daddy by Sylvia Plath Descriptions of Heaven and Hell by Mark Jarman Father by Edgar Guest Father Outside by Nick Flynn Father's Day Cards Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World by Sherman Alexie Inventing Father In Las Vegas by Lynn Emanuel Lay Back the Darkness by Edward Hirsch Man of the Year by Robin Becker Meeting with My Father in the Orchard by Homero Aridjis My Father by Scott Hightower my father moved through dooms of love by E. E. Cummings My Father on His Shield by Walt McDonald My Father Remembers Blue Zebras by Judy Halebsky My Father's Hat by Mark Irwin My Father's Leaving by Ira Sadoff My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke Only a Dad by Edgar Guest Parents by William Meredith Passing by Carl Phillips Poems about Fathers Renewal [Excerpt] by Chris Abani Shaving Your Father's Face by Michael Dickman Tended Strength: Gifts of Poetry for Fathers The Ferryer by Sharon Olds The Idea of Ancestry by Etheridge Knight The Idiot by Charles Reznikoff The Portrait by Stanley Kunitz The Trouble Ball [excerpt] by Martín Espada Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden To Her Father with Some Verses by Anne Bradstreet Whose Mouth Do I Speak With by Suzanne Rancourt With Kit, Age 7, at the Beach by William Stafford Working Late by Louis Simpson Yesterday by W. S. Merwin Poems about Old Age A Fear of Old Age by Jack Anderson An Old-Fashioned Song by John Hollander Eden by David Woo If You Get There Before I Do by Dick Allen Old Black Men by Georgia Douglas Johnson Telling by Elisabeth Frost The Drunken Fisherman by Robert Lowell The Golden Years by Billy Collins The High-Toned Old Christian Woman by Wallace Stevens The Summer House by Tony Connor The Transparent Man by Anthony Hecht To Her Body, Against Time by Robert Kelly Related Prose Poems for Times of Turmoil Poetic Form: Villanelle Lesson Plans And the winner is…: Poetry and Film Other Villanelles Apocalypse Soliloquy by Scott Hightower Cracked Ice by Julie Sheehan Improvisation on Lines by Isaac the Blind by Peter Cole One Art by Elizabeth Bishop Suburban by Michael Blumenthal Related Pages Poetry Ringtones Sponsor a Poet Page | Add to Notebook | E-mail to Friend | Print Do not go gentle into that good night   by Dylan Thomas Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.  463  60 StumbleUpon28 Google +32 Reddit27  44 Audio Clip from Caedmon From The Poems of Dylan Thomas, published by New Directions. Copyright © 1952, 1953 Dylan Thomas. Copyright © 1937, 1945, 1955, 1962, 1966, 1967 the Trustees for the Copyrights of Dylan Thomas. Copyright © 1938, 1939, 1943, 1946, 1971 New Directions Publishing Corp. Used with permission.
Larger Type | Home | Help | Contact Us | Privacy Policy Copyright © 1997 - 2013 by Academy of American Poets.

ShareThis Copy and Paste

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377#sthash.K7STi16i.dpuf

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377#sthash.gFIxTOzH.dpuf

 Terza rima is a type of poetry employing three lines per verse with a chained or interlocking rhyme scheme; for example,

Aba, bcb, cdc, ded, etc.   

An example of this would be the American poet Robert Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night”. 

I have been one acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain - and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light. 

I have looked down the saddest city lane. 

I passed by the watchman on his beat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry 

Came over houses from another street. 

But not to call me back or say good-bye;

and further still at an unearthly height

One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night.

Polysyndeton: close succession of conjunctions. Examples:

       They read and studied and wrote and   drilled.  I laughed and played and talked and flunked.

• _{"If there be cords, or knives,
  Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams, I'll not endure it." - From 'Othello' by William Shakespeare}
•  
• _{I said, "Who killed him?" and he said, "I don't know who killed him but he's dead all right," and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights and windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was all right only she was full of water. - From 'After The Storm' by Ernest Hemingway}
•  
• _{"Let the white folks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly--mostly--let them have their whiteness." - From 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings', an autobiography by Maya Angelou}

_{Asyndeton: Omits the use of conjunctions}

This is not just another figure of speech. The power, force, intensity and vehemence this device infuses into any writer's, or speaker's, work can be commendable. The rapid effect while keeping the audience hooked on to the edge is what an asyndeton statement does. Evolved from the Greek word asyndetos; asyndetism means unconnected or not bound together. The conjunctions connecting a series of words, phrases or clauses in this technique are omitted and instead, only commas are used. This continuous flow of thought speeds up the rhythm of the passage and a single idea tends to be more memorable. If you are familiar with the polysyndetons, a figure of speech which encourages overuse of conjunctions, then asyndetons are the complete opposite. An elimination of conjunctions enhances a reader's thought process, giving a natural sense of spontaneity to the overall piece. The examples below will enlighten you with the effect of this rhetorical device.

Asyndeton In Movies
Dialogues make a movie what it is. And a different technique and style can give an edge to them, making a movie memorable. It might be easy to overlook but many movies have had asyndeton dialogues and some are listed below.

• "Anyway, like I was saying, shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creoles, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That--that's about it."
  -By the character 'Bubba' from Forrest Gump
• "Why, they've got 10 volumes on suicide alone. Suicide by race, by color, by occupation, by sex, by seasons of the year, by time of day. Suicide, how committed: by poisons, by firearms, by drowning, by leaps. Suicide by poison, subdivided by types of poison, such as corrosive, irritant, systemic, gaseous, narcotic, alkaloid, protein, and so forth. Suicide by leaps, subdivided by leaps from high places, under the wheels of trains, under the wheels of trucks, under the feet of horses, from steamboats. But Mr. Norton, of all the cases on record, there's not one single case of suicide by leap from the rear end of a moving train."
  -By the character 'Barton Keyes' from Double Indemnity