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  #21  
Unread 06-01-2015, 11:22 PM
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RCL RCL is offline
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Thirteen or so years ago, Alicia called for villanelles and I posted one called Honest Iago's Villanelle. Nasty stuff, and it was lost in a computer crash. If anyone, by amazing chance, copied it or if it might still be hidden in the bowels of the sphere, let me know! I raked through all of Othello and it, in its horrible way, worked.

NEVER MIND. I FOUND IT IN THE BOWELS! CALLED HONEST IAGO'S V (2001)

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showth...s+Vi llanelle
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Last edited by RCL; 06-01-2015 at 11:57 PM.
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  #22  
Unread 06-02-2015, 12:02 AM
Siham Karami Siham Karami is offline
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Nice work, Ralph!

Some people, such as me, actually decide what form they want to try first and then find an idea to work with. But I also sometimes want to write something and it screams to me "I have to be a villanelle!" Probably the best one I ever wrote, "Labor day," was inspired by a villanelle I read in The Nation, because I rather liked it, but felt I could do one better. I still vividly remember the long period of time writing and revising it on paper, pages and pages, and when I finished I had this wonderful feeling that this is gonna work. Maybe a few tweaks but it captured the feeling and memories that I wanted to express. Only one line held me up for about six months. I think trial and error will tell, if in doubt, whether the idea fits the form. But I prefer to work in restrictive forms. Too much slack leaves me a little flat...
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  #23  
Unread 06-02-2015, 01:04 PM
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Thanks, Siham. I've only made public one other (a few weeks ago) and it richly deserved its demise! You're wise to let yours mature gracefully.
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  #24  
Unread 06-02-2015, 04:54 PM
Pedro Poitevin Pedro Poitevin is offline
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Nice to read that old thread, Ralph.

I've written sixteen villanelles (nine in Spanish, seven in English). Of these, at least four are disastrously bad, most are mediocre, and only one works very well. It's very likely that this one villanelle that worked will forever be my best poem. It's a pity that the muse had me write it in English instead of Spanish, though. In Spanish, it would have found an appreciative readership, but I'm a mediocre poet in English and this damages the chances of my one good villanelle. Oh well...

Pedro.

Last edited by Pedro Poitevin; 06-02-2015 at 05:09 PM.
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  #25  
Unread 06-03-2015, 12:39 PM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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Why would the Spanish have found a more appreciative readership, Pedro? Do you mean because you write better in Spanish, or is there something about the Spanish audience for poetry that is more receptive?
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  #26  
Unread 06-03-2015, 08:19 PM
Paddy Raghunathan Paddy Raghunathan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Cantor View Post
We must have had at least a dozen similar discussions over the past thirteen years, and about 1500 villanelles (many of them by me, some funny, some intentionally funny), but there appears to be one unbreakable rule - you must mention Dylan Thomas. I think I'll wait a year or so, until it's ripe again, and try to discuss villanelles without mentioning Thomas - betcha it comes up within three replies. But it was good to see Alicia's sestina, rather than Yolek (whoops!)
I found a fun one on Mike's site. When I read it the first time, I did not even realize I was reading a villanelle. It is called "For Harry, Who Had Three Passports."

Yes, everyone mentions Thomas' villanelle, and in the same breath, Bishop's "One Art." I have to say I was fascinated the first time I read them. But that was 17 years ago.

Cheers,

Paddy
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  #27  
Unread 06-05-2015, 05:54 PM
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I didn't see this one mentioned. Granted, I haven't been around for so long ... I think I prefer it to Thomas's, FWIW. But not to Bishop's.


Mad Girl's Love Song

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 blackness 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 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.)
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  #28  
Unread 06-10-2015, 08:09 AM
Esther Murer Esther Murer is offline
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On another board a group of us have been playing with a different form each month. In May it was ghazals, this month it's villanelles. Interesting the way some of the villanelles take on a ghazal quality, like having rather disconnected shers... er, stanzas.
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  #29  
Unread 06-10-2015, 08:41 AM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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As long as the thread has been dredged up, I might as well put in a plug for the Villanelles anthology edited by Annie Finch and Marie-Elizabeth Mali. In addition to containing every "famous" villanelle you can think of, it also has a lot of newer and previously unpublished examples from a variety of poets, including many Eratosphere members.
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  #30  
Unread 06-12-2015, 07:59 PM
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Michael F Michael F is offline
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Thanks, Roger, for that link.

Esther, that’s an interesting point about the stanzas; I might take ‘disconnectedness’ as prima facie proof of a poet’s struggling with the form and the constraint of the repetends. A big reason why I adore Bishop’s poem is precisely the connectedness, the single theme coursing through the poem, and the way she works a crescendo climaxing in the last stanza. With wit. It is truly masterful.

Auden’s villanelle, in comparison, feels flat and almost platitudinous -- and I’m a big Auden fan. (I of course admit the fault may lie in me.)
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