Saturday, June 9, 2012

I've probably posted this one before, but...


The villanelle form is similar to the pantoum in that it employs repeating lines and it is also similar to the triolet, because it has parent and children rhyming lines. The easiest part is that all you need do is compose 13 original lines with, more or less, ten equal syllabic counts.


  1. Workers are slaves to the tocking clock — (A1) refrain
  2. They moil without rest for a single bill — (a) line rhyme
  3. ‘cause businessmen rules the weight of your sock — (A2) refrain

  4. A penny for the broke, down at the dock — (a) line rhyme
  5. one forward, ten back is a chocking pill — (b) line rhyme
  6. Workers are slaves to the tocking clock — (A1) refrain line

  7. Merchants hoard your wealth under a lock— (a) line rhyme
  8. and key; this secret hides under the sill— (b) line rhyme
  9. ‘cause businessmen rules the weight of your sock — (A2) refrain line

  10. A man broken by years of laboring a block— (a) line rhyme
  11. is crushed with no reward, makes him ill— (b) line rhyme
  12. Workers are slaves to the tocking clock — (A1) refrain line

  13. Shivering alone, the rich fear to talk— (a) line rhyme
  14. Afraid the poor will pull the trigger to kill— (b) line rhyme
  15. ‘cause businessmen rules the weight of your sock — (A2) refrain line

  16. A worker puts a father’s watch up for hock— (a) line rhyme
  17. toiling past dusk, their labor is worth nil— (b) line rhyme
  18. ‘cause businessmen rules the weight of your sock — (A2) refrain line
  19. Workers are slaves to the tocking clock — (A1) refrain line


The villanelle is my favorite repeat line rhyming poem form. More people should write them. I should write more of them. And I will. Soon.


No comments:

Post a Comment