villanelle
Nineteen-line form
A villanelle is a highly structured poem of nineteen lines organized into five tercets and a final quatrain, with only two rhymes throughout and two lines that repeat in a prescribed pattern.
The form creates an incantatory effect, circling back on itself: Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night" is the most famous example in English.
Three-line verse unit
- refrainAbstain from acting
- repetitionAct of redoing
- ABALawyers' professional body
- rhyme schemeSound-matching arrangement in poetry
stanza · quatrain · envoy · iambic pentameter · circular · interweaving · echo · return
tercet
Three-line verse unit
- refrainAbstain from acting
- repetitionAct of redoing
- ABALawyers' professional body
rhyme scheme · stanza · quatrain · envoy · iambic pentameter · circular · interweaving · echo · return · recursive
Thomas
Masculine name meaning twin
- BishopHigh-ranking clergy title
- troubadourMedieval Provençal lyric poet
- FrenchOf or from Paris's nation
Plath · Renaissance · pastoral · obsession · elegy · lament · grief · madness · loss · longing
meter
Device that measures usage
- iambTwo-syllable metrical foot
- pentameterFive-foot poetic line
- rhymeMatching terminal sounds
scansion · enjambment · caesura · foot · stress · cadence · rhythm · syllable · assonance · consonance
villanellefree verse
Poetry without fixed structure
prose poetry · stream of consciousness · experimental poetry · blank verse · prose