Write a Villanelle
Poetry Contest
The Villanelle is a 19-line fixed form poem with repeating lines, composed in five tercets with a closing quatrain that ends in a rhyming couplet.
The villanelle is categorized as a modern classic form. It enjoyed a resurgence in the 20th century thanks to Oscar Wilde, Edwin Arlington Robinson, W.H. Auden, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop, Theodore Roethke, Seamus Heaney, and others.
Rhyme: aba-aba-aba-aba-aba-abaa
Structure: 19 lines - five tercets and a closing quatrain; 6 to 11 syllables per line
Measure/Beat: Iambic trimeter, tetrameter, or pentameter
Common Themes: Love, loss, and challenge
First and third lines of poem later form the closing couplet
Final line of the first tercet rhymes with the first line of the next stanza, forming a repetitive rhyme between the first and third lines of every stanza.
Example:
Mad Gil's Love Song
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead,
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head)
The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary darkness gallops in.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head).
God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and enter Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I fancied you'd return the way you said.
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head).
I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head).
The contest winner will win half of the prize pool of 90.00 member dollars. In this contest at least 2 submissions must be made for the vote to begin.
Deadline: Contest is closed. Deadline was Wednesday, September 2, 2015.
Full Contest Listing
The villanelle is categorized as a modern classic form. It enjoyed a resurgence in the 20th century thanks to Oscar Wilde, Edwin Arlington Robinson, W.H. Auden, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop, Theodore Roethke, Seamus Heaney, and others.
Rhyme: aba-aba-aba-aba-aba-abaa
Structure: 19 lines - five tercets and a closing quatrain; 6 to 11 syllables per line
Measure/Beat: Iambic trimeter, tetrameter, or pentameter
Common Themes: Love, loss, and challenge
First and third lines of poem later form the closing couplet
Final line of the first tercet rhymes with the first line of the next stanza, forming a repetitive rhyme between the first and third lines of every stanza.
Example:
Mad Gil's Love Song
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead,
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head)
The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary darkness gallops in.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head).
God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and enter Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I fancied you'd return the way you said.
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head).
I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head).
The contest winner will win half of the prize pool of 90.00 member dollars. In this contest at least 2 submissions must be made for the vote to begin.
Deadline: Contest is closed. Deadline was Wednesday, September 2, 2015.
