A Villanelle

No Jodie Comer here, sadly.... instead, I have explored the darkness and despair that accompanies depression and loneliness

Photo by Tiago Bandeira on Unsplash

If you are anything like me, when you hear the word ‘Villanelle’ you mind goes straight to Jodie Comer’s fabulous character in ‘Killing Eve’, and if it doesn’t, and you haven’t seen it, might I suggest you get on it right away, it is absolutely fabulous, and that’s not just because Jodie Comer is a fellow scouser (although you wouldn’t know it from her fantastic accent in this programme). Anyway, I digress…

For poets, a Villanelle is a poetry form, originating in France, and this week over on

Poetry Pals

we have been trying to write one ourselves, which I have to say, turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it might…

Here is the gist of what a Villanelle is:

The villanelle is a highly structured poem made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain, with two repeating rhymes and two refrains.

Rules of the Villanelle Form

The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem’s two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.

History of the Villanelle Form

Strange as it may seem for a poem with such a rigid rhyme scheme, the villanelle did not start off as a fixed form. During the Renaissance, the villanella and villancico (from the Italian villano, or peasant) were Italian and Spanish dance-songs. French poets who called their poems “villanelle” did not follow any specific schemes, rhymes, or refrains. Rather, the title implied that, like the Italian and Spanish dance-songs, their poems spoke of simple, often pastoral or rustic themes.

While some scholars believe that the form as we know it today has been in existence since the sixteenth century, others argue that only one Renaissance poem was ever written in that manner—Jean Passerat’s “Villanelle,” or “J’ay perdu ma tourterelle”—and that it wasn’t until the late nineteenth century that the villanelle was defined as a fixed form by French poet Théodore de Banville.

Regardless of its provenance, the form did not catch on in France, but it has become increasingly popular among poets writing in English. An excellent example of the form is Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night.”

Contemporary poets have not limited themselves to the pastoral themes originally expressed by the free-form villanelles of the Renaissance, and have loosened the fixed form to allow variations on the refrains. Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art” is another well-known example; other poets who have penned villanelles include W. H. Auden, Oscar Wilde, Seamus Heaney, David Shapiro, and Sylvia Plath.

Taken from poets.org

So, as you can see, many well-known poets have used the Villanelle form, including Dylan Thomas who’s poem ‘Do Not Go Gentle into This Good Night’ I used for my Golden Shovel last week, you can read that here if you missed it.

I tried a variety of different themes, but none of them seemed to work, I wrote, deleted, rewrote, deleted and rewrote again and again, and I was about to give up when I leaned into a subject matter I know a little about, but not to this extent. I thought about loneliness that comes with depression.

I have been depressed a few times in my life, and have isolated myself from people as a result, this poem I think reflects that, however, for any friends and family that might read this, I must state that I do not feel like this currently and I am ok!!

But I do think that there are people who will relate to this and whilst the words are simple, the sentiment remains true - depression is isolating and can feel like hell¹

So, here is my attempt at a Villanelle, I would like to write a cheerier one sometime, but this one took it out of me so I am going to leave it for now.

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Alone

I close my eyes and all is well
No more sorrow, no more pain
I'm all alone in a place called hell

I long to be freed from this prison cell
to feel the gentle touch of rain
I close my eyes and all is well

It's lonely here, no souls to tell
I only have myself to blame
I'm all alone in a place called hell

All my friends have said farewell
There's no-one here to keep me sane
I close my eyes and all is well

I think of where I wish to dwell
Away from all this guilt and shame
I'm all alone in a place called hell

My body now an empty shell
My mind plays tricks upon my brain
I close my eyes and all is well
I'm alone in a place called hell

Thanks for reading

Lisa x

1. I do not believe that there is a place called hell that you go to if you die a bad person, as someone who grew up in the christian church with this teaching it was (and still is) a fundamental belief. I have recently deconstructed my beliefs and no longer believe in this teaching. I believe that hell exists now, on earth, in places like Gaza where people are suffering horrendously at the hands of evil people, and in the minds of those who kill innocent children such as what has happened in Southport, UK this week. It also exists in the minds of those feeling the emptiness and loneliness of despair and depression.