A villanelle's not hard to write.
Very few rules, and they're tried and true:
Six stanzas; three lines; a, b, a throughout.
First's your first line, repeated for spite
As the last line of stanzas four and two.
A villanelle's not hard to write.
Next is line two, you want the rhyme right
For you'll match it with every other line two.
Six stanzas; three lines; a, b, a throughout.
The third's a charm, in its own right
It ends stanza three, five, and six, too!
A villanelle's not hard to write.
Are you following? It's really black & white
We can reduce the rules to an analytical view:
Six stanzas; three lines; a, b, a throughout.
Beware the last stanza, or you'll feel its bite
Four lines, not three, and I seek to imbue:
A villanelle's not hard to write;
Six stanzas; three lines; a, b, a throughout.
© 2003 Jason C. Jones