How to Write a Winning Villanelle

A villanelle is a short poem of fixed form, French in origin, consisting usually of five 3-line stanzas and a final 4-line stanza and having only two rhymes throughout. I won the first place of $20,000 and a book publishing contract at Poetry.com for writing one. I could help you write your winning villanelle, too!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• paper
• pen or pencil with eraser
• thesaurus
• your innate creativity!
• poetic inspiration!

1. Decide on your topic. Villanelles are usually written with a whiff of the tragic. See what you can make of my winning poem's title: "VIllanelle of a retired overseas Filipino worker." More importantly, the most famous villanelle I could think of is the one written by Dylan Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." Another beautiful villanelle, read by Cameron Diaz's character in the film, " In Her Shoes," is Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art." Try to search for these villanelles online and learn from their great style and depth of emotion.
2. Decide on your rhyme scheme. The villanelle rhyme scheme is a-b-a. Remember that a villanelle is a poem of 19 lines. It has 5 stanzas, each of 3 lines, with a final one of 4 lines.
3. Write out some phrases and sentence fragments at random using your thesaurus as reference. Technically, the first line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the second and fourth stanzas. The third line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the third and fifth stanzas. These two refrain lines follow each other to become the second to the last and last lines of the poem.
4. Write to your heart's content! Just write something without self-criticism and premature editing. You can always set aside your villanelle in the making, refresh your outlook in life, then go back to the drawing board and refine the results of your obra maestra!
   
   Good luck, you talented poet you!

Tips & Warnings

• Write a poem only on topics that really pique your interest.
• Find your inner rhythm. Don't force the villanelle out of you if you feel it is not yet the right time.
• Look around you for the details of everyday life that might spark your creative juices. Inspiration may just be around the corner and you don' t have to look very far!
• Writing villanelles could become addictive! :)