Villanelle: A form of poetry featuring five tercets and a quartet, with an alternating rhyme scheme and a pair of repeating lines scattered throughout. To be honest, I’m not normally the type to spring for structured poetry. I tend to write very freeform poetry, if it can even be called that after a while.
But every once in a blue moon, my attention is caught by a particular turn of phrase and my brain is turned on to a new way to write poetry. In this case, I became fixated on the poem Mad Girl’s Love Song by Sylvia Plath, which we read in English last year. And Mad Girl’s Love Song happens to be a villanelle.
Then, after I learned that Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas (who was born on the same day as Plath, just about 17 years earlier) is also a villanelle, I had to try my hand at it. Here’s one villanelle which I came up with. Enjoy!
Higher Ground
I take to you like water takes to stone
I soak my soul; I crash against the coast
My brain aflame, my lungs like brittle bone
A foliage of daisies overgrown
They catch me, gently swaying at the post
I take to you like water takes to stone
The sun beats down, the clouds a taunting cone
Was there a time I didn’t know your name?
My brain aflame, my lungs like brittle bone
My mother warns you’ll try to take my throne
But I’ve become accustomed to this game
I take to you like water takes to stone
And then I find a different seed has sown
Itself inside my heart and made its claim
My brain aflame, my lungs like brittle bone
I think were you to leave I’d walk alone
But every time I turned I’d see your ghost
I take to you like water takes to stone
My brain aflame, my lungs like brittle bone
You definitely have a knack for poetry Lara! Loved reading this and your piece!