Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Sonnet 56 Villanelle response

Out of all of the versions of the poem throughout this book, I was most drawn to the villanelle version on page 12. After looking up the structure of a villanelle poem, I found that the first and third lines of the stanza end in rhyme, with a couplet at the end. The villanelle has 19 lines, 5 stanzas of three lines and one with four. This forms seems to have a very lyrical quality to it and the poem almost sounds like a song to me. The use of repetition throughout the poem also adds to this, after the first stanza all of the following ones only have two new lines. This also ads to the tone of desparation in the piece. "For a day of love, we starve a thousand nights" Love is an on going state, and the lyrical quality of this poem gives it an almost tragic feel.

1 comment:

  1. I was actually a big fan of this sonnet as well, although I think Villanelles can often be annoying this one worked.

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