Thus spake the Neo-Formalist establishment, Marion. I never denied that a good villanelle could be written, any more than a good sestina. Nor would I say that no one should write them. I would say that there are too goddamn many of them, that the villanelles I see published have a far greater chance of sucking ass than most other types of metrical poems and tend to suck ass worse, that the form is, I suspect, frequently used by the technically proficient to just keep cranking the fuckers out, that the problem isn't that the form is hard per se but that it is of relatively narrow utility.
Quincy
Editing in--the pithy comment directed at Marion--which was not intended to offend--has been excised.
[This message has been edited by Quincy Lehr (edited November 20, 2006).]
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