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| Contests |
Trellis Magazine invites writers of all ages and skill levels to enter our Villanelle Contest!
Creativity is encouraged. Instructions on writing a Villanelle, and example poems, are given below.
Please read the complete contest guidelines before submitting your poetry.
PRIZES AND AWARDS
First Place Passerat Villanelle Prize: $50 Amazon.com Gift Certificate, and featured publication in Trellis Magazine.
Second Place Passerat Villanelle Prize: $35 Amazon.com Gift Certificate, and featured publication in Trellis Magazine.
Third Place Prize: $25 Amazon.com Gift Certificate, and featured publication in Trellis Magazine.
Book Prize (for students only): $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card, featured publication in Trellis Magazine, and one free print
magazine.
Honorable Mention Awards: Featured publication in Trellis Magazine.
Young Poet’s Showcase Awards: Publication in the magazine’s online section for selected student poetry in poetic form.
HOW TO SUBMIT
You must include a Contest Submission Form along with your Villanelle poem. Click here for the contest submission form:
Villanelle Contest Submission Form
By email, send your entry to: contest@TrellisMagazine.com
Send text submissions in the body of the email or as an attached Word document (only .doc or .txt files will
be accepted).
By mail, send your entry to: Trellis Magazine Contest, PO Box 32265, Raleigh, NC 27622.
Information sent to Trellis Magazine is used only by the nonprofit publisher, Trellis Literary Corporation, for the purposes
of publishing and education, and is not shared with any other organizations. In submitting work to Trellis, you are agreeing
to allow Trellis Magazine to publish your work on the internet or print under your own copyright.
Students:
Include your age, grade level, and school on the submission form, to become eligible for the Book Prize and the Young
Poet’s Showcase Awards (both for students in grades K-12 in any school - private, public, magnet, charter, religious, or
homeschool).
Teachers:
You may send your students’ poems by email or by mail. Each poem must have a submission form. The submission form
should state the student’s information, and either your email address or the student’s email address for contact.
POETRY REQUIREMENTS
All submissions must be your own original work.
Theme:
Poems may cover any theme or subject. Your villanelle can be serious or humorous. (As with all our contests, poems with
inappropriate or offensive language or content will not be eligible to be judged or published.)
You may enter more than one poem into the contest, but only one of your poems -- your best poem as decided by the
judging process -- will be eligible to win a prize or award.
Poetic Forms:
Your poem should use one of these poetic forms: the Passerat Villanelle, a Long Villanelle, a Short Villanelle, or a Creative
Villanelle. Only the Passerat Villanelle poems will be eligible for the First and Second Prizes.
We are looking for poems that exhibit these characteristics of the traditional villanelle form in English:
Metered Lines – It is preferred that you use a traditional meter -- syllabic meter, accentual meter, or accentual-syllabic
meter.
Matching Rhymes – The rhyme sounds used at the end of the lines should match closely (the same vowel sound and
consonant sound in the final syllable).
Echoed Refrains – The refrain lines should be repeated exactly (word-for-word), or very similarly (creativity is allowed),
throughout the poem.
See below for “How to Write a Villanelle”. Detailed explanations of the elements of Meter and Rhyme are available in the
Right Word articles in the Resources section of our website. Right Word articles will help writers of all ages. (link to the
Resources section, or to each article)
Passerat Villanelle:
We encourage you to use this popular poetic form, originated by early French poet Jean Passerat and adopted by modern
English writers. This form is described as:
• 19 lines.
• The lines are all the same metrical length.
• The lines are arranged in five tercets (three-line stanzas) and a final quatrain (four-line stanza).
• Two end-rhymes, designated “a” and “b”.
• Two refrain (repeated) lines – A1 and A2 – which recur in a weaving pattern (in more than one stanza throughout
poem).
• The regular and refrain lines with the same letter rhyme (such as “a”, A1, and A2).
• Rhyme scheme is A1bA2 abA1 abA2 abA1 abA2 abA1A2.
• Sometimes a particular poem is concluded better with the final quatrain being abA2 A1, and you may do that in any
villanelle you submit for this contest.
Example Passerat Villanelle poems are given below.
Long Villanelle:
You may submit a villanelle that has more than 19 lines because you have added more middle tercets (abA1 and/or abA2),
similar to the longer stanzaic variations explored by English and French poets. Otherwise, your Long Villanelle should be
like the Passerat Villanelle. (The rhyme scheme would be A1bA2 abA1 abA2 abA1 abA2 more tercets… abA1A2.)
Example Long Villanelle poems are given below.
Short Villanelle:
If you are a young writer or a new writer, you may want to compose a shorter poem. We are suggesting this Short
Villanelle form, which is similar to shorter stanzaic variations explored by English and French poets. The Short Villanelle
form for this contest is described as:
• 13 lines.
• The lines are the same metrical length.
• The lines are arranged in tercets (three-line stanzas) and a final quatrain (four-line stanza).
• Two end-rhymes, designated “a” and “b” .
• Two refrain (repeated) lines – A1 and A2 – which recur in a weaving pattern (recurring in more than one stanza
throughout poem).
• The regular and refrain lines with the same letter (such as “a”, “A1”, and “A2”) rhyme.
• Rhyme scheme is A1bA2 abA1 abA2 abA1A2 .
• (You may also submit a 16 line short villanelle, which would have another middle tercet.)
Example Short Villanelles are given below.
Creative Villanelle:
You may invent or borrow a Creative Villanelle form. The invented or borrowed form may be shorter or longer than 19
lines. Your Creative Villanelle must meet the following requirements to be eligible for judging:
• There are lines arranged in stanzas. (Stanzas could be tercets, quatrains, or longer stanzas, or a combination of two
or more kinds of stanzas.)
• All the lines are metered. ( The lines could be all the same length, or they could be in some pattern of lengths.
For example, all the “a” lines are iambic tetrameter and all the “b” lines are shorter of iambic trimeter.)
• There are at least two end-rhymes repeated in the poem’s rhyme scheme in some sort of weaving pattern.
• There are at least two refrain lines repeated in the poem’s rhyme scheme in some sort of weaving pattern.
• It ends with an echo of the beginning.
• You must provide a brief explanation of your Creative Villanelle’s poetic form, on the Contest Submission Form. If
you borrowed the form from a poem by another author, give that information too.
A creative villanelle form that you may want to try is the Terzanelle, a modern American-invented form. It is useful if you
are having trouble thinking of rhyming sounds and refrain lines that could be repeated so many times, or if your theme
needs more change than two refrain lines provide. However, the Terzanelle’s rhyme/refrain scheme is considerably more
complicated than the villanelle. The Terzanelle form has:
• 19 lines.
• The lines are the same metrical length.
• The lines are arranged in five tercets and a final quatrain.
• Six end-rhymes – a, b, c, d, e, f.
• Seven refrain lines - A1, A2, B, C, D, E, F - occurring twice in a weaving pattern.
• The regular and refrain lines with the same letter (such as ‘b” and “B”) rhyme.
• Rhyme scheme is A1BA2 bCB cDC dED eFE f FA1A2 (or the final quatrain can be fA1FA2 ).
Examples of Terzanelles and another creative villanelle are given below.
EXAMPLES
Examples of Passerat (Standard) Villanelles:
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas
“The Caged Thrush Freed and Home Again” by Thomas Hardy
“Villanelle: To the Nightingale in September” by Henry Charles Beeching
“Villanelle of Ye Young Poet’s First Villanelle to his Ladye and Ye Difficulties Thereof” by Eugene O’Neill
“Villanelle for an Anniversary” by Seamus Heaney
“Villanelle” by W. H. Auden
“The House on the Hill” by Edwin Arlington Robinson
“Villanelle: Little mistress mine, goodbye” by Edmund Gosse
Passerat Villanelles about the villanelle form:
“Villanelle” (Rhyme’s Reason) by John Hollander
“A Dainty Thing’s the Villanelle” by W. E. Henley
“A Villanelle Tutorial” by Margaret I. Gibson
Examples of Long Villanelles:
“Villanelle: The air is white with snow-flakes clinging” by John Payne
"A Liverpool Villanelle" by Eddie Gibbons
Examples of Short Villanelles:
“Villanelle: When I first saw your eyes” by Henry Austin Dobson
(scroll to bottom of site page) (this site runs the lines together, rather than showing the stanza breaks of this poem, which
are four tercets and a quatrain)
“Villanelle” by Charles Renee Marie Leconte de Lisle (written in French, but rhyme scheme and stanza breaks are obvious)
Examples of Terzanelles:
Terzanelles by Lewis Turco
“Autumnal Blues” by Jenny McPhillips
Another Creative Villanelle example:
“A Vacation Villanelle” by Cotsford Dick
"Pan - A Double Villanelle" by Oscar Wilde
HOW TO WRITE A VILLANELLE
The heart of the 19-line Passerat Villanelle is a rhyming couplet made of the refrain lines A1 and A2. These lines begin
and end your poem. The repetition in the Villanelle made this form popular. Refrains allow the audience to understand
and remember the poem more clearly at first hearing or first reading. You can use the recurrence of the refrain lines to
delve more deeply into your theme. Each stanza can revise, amplify, or reveal more of what you feel or think.
Because the refrains are so important, draft them first. Draft a lot of couplets A1 and A2 whose wording would support
your poem’s theme. To help you remember that the two lines will appear separately for most of the poem, you can draft
the first line in one color (or italic) and the second line in another color (or boldface).
The refrain lines will determine the “a” rhyme sound in the rhyme scheme for the rest of the poem, so make the lines
end with some sound that will be easy to rhyme. You can use a rhyming dictionary to come up with the best rhymes.
The refrain lines must match each other in metrical length. They will also determine the meter for the rest of the
poem. Use a meter and length that you understand how to write, and that feels right for your theme.
(Detailed explanations of the elements of Meter and Rhyme are available in the Right Word articles in the Resources
section of our website. Right Word articles will help writers of all ages.)
Let’s say you want to write a poem about your cat, who just sits on the rug and won’t play with you. Try to write two
lines A1 and A2 which express your theme. The two lines should rhyme, and have the same metrical length. Drafting
couplets might look like this:
The cat sits on the rug
She really bugs me
The cat sits on the rug. She
Really bugs me
My cat sits on the rug all day
I wish she liked to pounce and play
The third couplet works. The lines match for rhyme sound (-ay) and for meter (eight syllables in iambic rhythm ta-DUM
ta-DUM ta-DUM ta-DUM). They support your theme. Save that couplet as a possible choice. Throw away the other
couplets that did NOT work. Keep drafting more couplets. Other couplets can have a different rhyme, a different meter
and rhythm.
The cat is satisfied
I wish she had died
The cat is satisfied
I have begged and tried
The cat is satisfied
When I have begged and tried
The last couplet works. The lines match for rhyme sound (-ied) and for meter (six syllables, in iambic rhythm). They
support your theme. Save that couplet as a possible choice. Throw away the other couplets that did NOT work. Keep
drafting more couplets, until you have many couplets that work.
Choose the best couplet from those you have saved. Look for: best expression of your theme; originality of wording;
flexibility in the way each of the lines could be used in combination with other lines; and ability for each line to become
modified slightly in meaning upon repetition.
Each refrain line should be able to become part of the poem, the natural next line. Could the refrain line become part
of an enjambment - a running over in sense from one line to another or one stanza to another? Enjambment helps make
the refrain more interesting and less repetitive.
Once you have composed your couplet A1 and A2, you have written eight lines of the villanelle!
Now write either your first stanza or your last stanza, to determine your “b” rhyme sound. You might want to make a
list of words that rhyme and that support your theme. For example, possible cat poem “b” rhymes might be rug, shrug,
smug, tug; or they might be play, stay, may, delay.
You can begin by drafting the first stanza, since it introduces your poem. Put an unrhymed line between the refrains,
to make a three-line stanza (tercet). The new line should have the same meter as your A refrain lines. The new line will
determine the “b” rhyme sound for the rest of the poem, so make it end with some different sound that will be easy to
rhyme. Draft this new line with the last word written in a third color (or underlined).
Drafting the first stanza might look like this:
The cat is satisfied
to sit upon a rug
when I have begged and tried
Alternately, you can begin by drafting the last stanza, the four-line stanza (quatrain), since it is the important
conclusion to your poem. Put two new lines before the final refrains. The new lines should have the same meter as your
A refrain lines. The new lines end in sound “a” and then the new sound “b”. Make the “b” line end with some different
sound that will be easy to rhyme, and draft this line with the last word written in a third color (or underlined).
Drafting the last stanza might look like this:
She purred as she denied
my chance to pounce and play.
The cat is satisfied
when I have begged and tried.
Notice that the example cat poem would have a different “b” rhyme depending on whether you had begun by drafting
your first stanza or your last stanza. Which do you like better?? You must settle on one “b” rhyme that you prefer, and
use it throughout the entire poem.
You could re-write the final quatrain to match your “rug” rhyme in the cat example poem. The quatrain could become:
She purred as she denied
my chance to play. So smug,
the cat is satisfied
when I have begged and tried.
Compose the rest of the villanelle. Each new line should have the same meter. Refer often to the rhyme scheme as
you compose the lines and stanzas. Keep track of your refrain lines by drafting them in the different colors (or fonts)
throughout. Keep track of the rhyme of your other lines by drafting the last word of each “b” line in your third color (or
underline). The lines that have no color or font changes are your “a” lines. They must rhyme with your refrains.
When you begin writing each new tercet, place the refrain at the end of it. Decide whether you want the refrain to
be a separate stand-alone sentence at the end of this tercet, or to be part of the tercet “b” line’s meaning
(enjambment), or part of the next tercet’s meaning.
For example, in your cat villanelle, composing an enjambment of A2 into the next tercet might look like this:
The cat is satisfied
to sit upon a rug.
When I have begged, and tried
to get her on my side
with treats, she gives a shrug.
The cat is satisfied.
WRITING PRACTICE:
Can you finish our cat villanelle for writing practice? Just fill in the missing lines in any of our cat villanelle examples
below for fun.
The first writing practice example has been shortened (by two fewer tercets) for easiest practice, in a Short Villanelle
form. You only have to write two lines to complete it! The meter of each blank line should be six syllables in iambic
rhythm (ta-DUM ta-DUM ta-DUM). The rhyme sounds are supplied at the end of the two blank lines, to help you.
The other writing practice examples are full Passerat Villanelles, with increasing difficulty to complete.
Send us your cat villanelle writing practice if you want feedback from the Editor on rhyme and meter. Send to
Editor@TrellisMagazine.com. (The Editor will post her favorite completed cat examples in the blog during the contest, for
everyone’s enjoyment!)
CAT VILLANELLE #1-- SHORTENED VERSION (easiest to complete)
The cat is satisfied
to sit upon a rug.
When I have begged, and tried
to get her on my side
with treats, she gives a shrug.
The cat is satisfied.
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ug
when I have begged and tried.
She purred as she denied
my chance to play. So smug,
the cat is satisfied
when I have begged and tried.
CAT VILLANELLE #2—PASSERAT (fairly easy to complete)
The cat is satisfied
to sit upon a rug.
When I have begged, and tried
to get her on my side
with treats, she gives a shrug.
The cat is satisfied.
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ug
when I have begged and tried
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ug
the cat is satisfied
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ug
when I have begged and tried
She purred as she denied
my chance to play. So smug,
the cat is satisfied
when I have begged and tried.
CAT VILLANELLE #3 – PASSERAT (moderate difficulty)
The cat is satisfied,
sleeps on the rug all day
when I have begged and tried
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ay
the cat is satisfied
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ay
when I have begged and tried
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ay
the cat is satisfied
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ay
when I have begged and tried
She purred as she denied
my chance to pounce and play.
The cat is satisfied
when I have begged and tried.
CAT VILLANELLE #4 – PASSERAT (most difficult to complete)
My cat sits on the rug all day
__________________________________(rhyme b)
I wish she liked to pounce and play
__________________________________ay
__________________________________(rhyme b)
my cat sits on the rug all day
_________________________________ay
_________________________________(rhyme b)
I wish she liked to pounce and play
__________________________________ay
__________________________________(rhyme b)
my cat sits on the rug all day
_________________________________ay
_________________________________(rhyme b)
I wish she liked to pounce and play
________________________________ay
________________________________(rhyme b)
My cat sits on the rug all day.
I wish she liked to pounce and play.
Creativity is encouraged. Instructions on writing a Villanelle, and example poems, are given below.
Please read the complete contest guidelines before submitting your poetry.
PRIZES AND AWARDS
First Place Passerat Villanelle Prize: $50 Amazon.com Gift Certificate, and featured publication in Trellis Magazine.
Second Place Passerat Villanelle Prize: $35 Amazon.com Gift Certificate, and featured publication in Trellis Magazine.
Third Place Prize: $25 Amazon.com Gift Certificate, and featured publication in Trellis Magazine.
Book Prize (for students only): $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card, featured publication in Trellis Magazine, and one free print
magazine.
Honorable Mention Awards: Featured publication in Trellis Magazine.
Young Poet’s Showcase Awards: Publication in the magazine’s online section for selected student poetry in poetic form.
HOW TO SUBMIT
You must include a Contest Submission Form along with your Villanelle poem. Click here for the contest submission form:
Villanelle Contest Submission Form
By email, send your entry to: contest@TrellisMagazine.com
Send text submissions in the body of the email or as an attached Word document (only .doc or .txt files will
be accepted).
By mail, send your entry to: Trellis Magazine Contest, PO Box 32265, Raleigh, NC 27622.
Information sent to Trellis Magazine is used only by the nonprofit publisher, Trellis Literary Corporation, for the purposes
of publishing and education, and is not shared with any other organizations. In submitting work to Trellis, you are agreeing
to allow Trellis Magazine to publish your work on the internet or print under your own copyright.
Students:
Include your age, grade level, and school on the submission form, to become eligible for the Book Prize and the Young
Poet’s Showcase Awards (both for students in grades K-12 in any school - private, public, magnet, charter, religious, or
homeschool).
Teachers:
You may send your students’ poems by email or by mail. Each poem must have a submission form. The submission form
should state the student’s information, and either your email address or the student’s email address for contact.
POETRY REQUIREMENTS
All submissions must be your own original work.
Theme:
Poems may cover any theme or subject. Your villanelle can be serious or humorous. (As with all our contests, poems with
inappropriate or offensive language or content will not be eligible to be judged or published.)
You may enter more than one poem into the contest, but only one of your poems -- your best poem as decided by the
judging process -- will be eligible to win a prize or award.
Poetic Forms:
Your poem should use one of these poetic forms: the Passerat Villanelle, a Long Villanelle, a Short Villanelle, or a Creative
Villanelle. Only the Passerat Villanelle poems will be eligible for the First and Second Prizes.
We are looking for poems that exhibit these characteristics of the traditional villanelle form in English:
Metered Lines – It is preferred that you use a traditional meter -- syllabic meter, accentual meter, or accentual-syllabic
meter.
Matching Rhymes – The rhyme sounds used at the end of the lines should match closely (the same vowel sound and
consonant sound in the final syllable).
Echoed Refrains – The refrain lines should be repeated exactly (word-for-word), or very similarly (creativity is allowed),
throughout the poem.
See below for “How to Write a Villanelle”. Detailed explanations of the elements of Meter and Rhyme are available in the
Right Word articles in the Resources section of our website. Right Word articles will help writers of all ages. (link to the
Resources section, or to each article)
Passerat Villanelle:
We encourage you to use this popular poetic form, originated by early French poet Jean Passerat and adopted by modern
English writers. This form is described as:
• 19 lines.
• The lines are all the same metrical length.
• The lines are arranged in five tercets (three-line stanzas) and a final quatrain (four-line stanza).
• Two end-rhymes, designated “a” and “b”.
• Two refrain (repeated) lines – A1 and A2 – which recur in a weaving pattern (in more than one stanza throughout
poem).
• The regular and refrain lines with the same letter rhyme (such as “a”, A1, and A2).
• Rhyme scheme is A1bA2 abA1 abA2 abA1 abA2 abA1A2.
• Sometimes a particular poem is concluded better with the final quatrain being abA2 A1, and you may do that in any
villanelle you submit for this contest.
Example Passerat Villanelle poems are given below.
Long Villanelle:
You may submit a villanelle that has more than 19 lines because you have added more middle tercets (abA1 and/or abA2),
similar to the longer stanzaic variations explored by English and French poets. Otherwise, your Long Villanelle should be
like the Passerat Villanelle. (The rhyme scheme would be A1bA2 abA1 abA2 abA1 abA2 more tercets… abA1A2.)
Example Long Villanelle poems are given below.
Short Villanelle:
If you are a young writer or a new writer, you may want to compose a shorter poem. We are suggesting this Short
Villanelle form, which is similar to shorter stanzaic variations explored by English and French poets. The Short Villanelle
form for this contest is described as:
• 13 lines.
• The lines are the same metrical length.
• The lines are arranged in tercets (three-line stanzas) and a final quatrain (four-line stanza).
• Two end-rhymes, designated “a” and “b” .
• Two refrain (repeated) lines – A1 and A2 – which recur in a weaving pattern (recurring in more than one stanza
throughout poem).
• The regular and refrain lines with the same letter (such as “a”, “A1”, and “A2”) rhyme.
• Rhyme scheme is A1bA2 abA1 abA2 abA1A2 .
• (You may also submit a 16 line short villanelle, which would have another middle tercet.)
Example Short Villanelles are given below.
Creative Villanelle:
You may invent or borrow a Creative Villanelle form. The invented or borrowed form may be shorter or longer than 19
lines. Your Creative Villanelle must meet the following requirements to be eligible for judging:
• There are lines arranged in stanzas. (Stanzas could be tercets, quatrains, or longer stanzas, or a combination of two
or more kinds of stanzas.)
• All the lines are metered. ( The lines could be all the same length, or they could be in some pattern of lengths.
For example, all the “a” lines are iambic tetrameter and all the “b” lines are shorter of iambic trimeter.)
• There are at least two end-rhymes repeated in the poem’s rhyme scheme in some sort of weaving pattern.
• There are at least two refrain lines repeated in the poem’s rhyme scheme in some sort of weaving pattern.
• It ends with an echo of the beginning.
• You must provide a brief explanation of your Creative Villanelle’s poetic form, on the Contest Submission Form. If
you borrowed the form from a poem by another author, give that information too.
A creative villanelle form that you may want to try is the Terzanelle, a modern American-invented form. It is useful if you
are having trouble thinking of rhyming sounds and refrain lines that could be repeated so many times, or if your theme
needs more change than two refrain lines provide. However, the Terzanelle’s rhyme/refrain scheme is considerably more
complicated than the villanelle. The Terzanelle form has:
• 19 lines.
• The lines are the same metrical length.
• The lines are arranged in five tercets and a final quatrain.
• Six end-rhymes – a, b, c, d, e, f.
• Seven refrain lines - A1, A2, B, C, D, E, F - occurring twice in a weaving pattern.
• The regular and refrain lines with the same letter (such as ‘b” and “B”) rhyme.
• Rhyme scheme is A1BA2 bCB cDC dED eFE f FA1A2 (or the final quatrain can be fA1FA2 ).
Examples of Terzanelles and another creative villanelle are given below.
EXAMPLES
Examples of Passerat (Standard) Villanelles:
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas
“The Caged Thrush Freed and Home Again” by Thomas Hardy
“Villanelle: To the Nightingale in September” by Henry Charles Beeching
“Villanelle of Ye Young Poet’s First Villanelle to his Ladye and Ye Difficulties Thereof” by Eugene O’Neill
“Villanelle for an Anniversary” by Seamus Heaney
“Villanelle” by W. H. Auden
“The House on the Hill” by Edwin Arlington Robinson
“Villanelle: Little mistress mine, goodbye” by Edmund Gosse
Passerat Villanelles about the villanelle form:
“Villanelle” (Rhyme’s Reason) by John Hollander
“A Dainty Thing’s the Villanelle” by W. E. Henley
“A Villanelle Tutorial” by Margaret I. Gibson
Examples of Long Villanelles:
“Villanelle: The air is white with snow-flakes clinging” by John Payne
"A Liverpool Villanelle" by Eddie Gibbons
Examples of Short Villanelles:
“Villanelle: When I first saw your eyes” by Henry Austin Dobson
(scroll to bottom of site page) (this site runs the lines together, rather than showing the stanza breaks of this poem, which
are four tercets and a quatrain)
“Villanelle” by Charles Renee Marie Leconte de Lisle (written in French, but rhyme scheme and stanza breaks are obvious)
Examples of Terzanelles:
Terzanelles by Lewis Turco
“Autumnal Blues” by Jenny McPhillips
Another Creative Villanelle example:
“A Vacation Villanelle” by Cotsford Dick
"Pan - A Double Villanelle" by Oscar Wilde
HOW TO WRITE A VILLANELLE
The heart of the 19-line Passerat Villanelle is a rhyming couplet made of the refrain lines A1 and A2. These lines begin
and end your poem. The repetition in the Villanelle made this form popular. Refrains allow the audience to understand
and remember the poem more clearly at first hearing or first reading. You can use the recurrence of the refrain lines to
delve more deeply into your theme. Each stanza can revise, amplify, or reveal more of what you feel or think.
Because the refrains are so important, draft them first. Draft a lot of couplets A1 and A2 whose wording would support
your poem’s theme. To help you remember that the two lines will appear separately for most of the poem, you can draft
the first line in one color (or italic) and the second line in another color (or boldface).
The refrain lines will determine the “a” rhyme sound in the rhyme scheme for the rest of the poem, so make the lines
end with some sound that will be easy to rhyme. You can use a rhyming dictionary to come up with the best rhymes.
The refrain lines must match each other in metrical length. They will also determine the meter for the rest of the
poem. Use a meter and length that you understand how to write, and that feels right for your theme.
(Detailed explanations of the elements of Meter and Rhyme are available in the Right Word articles in the Resources
section of our website. Right Word articles will help writers of all ages.)
Let’s say you want to write a poem about your cat, who just sits on the rug and won’t play with you. Try to write two
lines A1 and A2 which express your theme. The two lines should rhyme, and have the same metrical length. Drafting
couplets might look like this:
The cat sits on the rug
She really bugs me
The cat sits on the rug. She
Really bugs me
My cat sits on the rug all day
I wish she liked to pounce and play
The third couplet works. The lines match for rhyme sound (-ay) and for meter (eight syllables in iambic rhythm ta-DUM
ta-DUM ta-DUM ta-DUM). They support your theme. Save that couplet as a possible choice. Throw away the other
couplets that did NOT work. Keep drafting more couplets. Other couplets can have a different rhyme, a different meter
and rhythm.
The cat is satisfied
I wish she had died
The cat is satisfied
I have begged and tried
The cat is satisfied
When I have begged and tried
The last couplet works. The lines match for rhyme sound (-ied) and for meter (six syllables, in iambic rhythm). They
support your theme. Save that couplet as a possible choice. Throw away the other couplets that did NOT work. Keep
drafting more couplets, until you have many couplets that work.
Choose the best couplet from those you have saved. Look for: best expression of your theme; originality of wording;
flexibility in the way each of the lines could be used in combination with other lines; and ability for each line to become
modified slightly in meaning upon repetition.
Each refrain line should be able to become part of the poem, the natural next line. Could the refrain line become part
of an enjambment - a running over in sense from one line to another or one stanza to another? Enjambment helps make
the refrain more interesting and less repetitive.
Once you have composed your couplet A1 and A2, you have written eight lines of the villanelle!
Now write either your first stanza or your last stanza, to determine your “b” rhyme sound. You might want to make a
list of words that rhyme and that support your theme. For example, possible cat poem “b” rhymes might be rug, shrug,
smug, tug; or they might be play, stay, may, delay.
You can begin by drafting the first stanza, since it introduces your poem. Put an unrhymed line between the refrains,
to make a three-line stanza (tercet). The new line should have the same meter as your A refrain lines. The new line will
determine the “b” rhyme sound for the rest of the poem, so make it end with some different sound that will be easy to
rhyme. Draft this new line with the last word written in a third color (or underlined).
Drafting the first stanza might look like this:
The cat is satisfied
to sit upon a rug
when I have begged and tried
Alternately, you can begin by drafting the last stanza, the four-line stanza (quatrain), since it is the important
conclusion to your poem. Put two new lines before the final refrains. The new lines should have the same meter as your
A refrain lines. The new lines end in sound “a” and then the new sound “b”. Make the “b” line end with some different
sound that will be easy to rhyme, and draft this line with the last word written in a third color (or underlined).
Drafting the last stanza might look like this:
She purred as she denied
my chance to pounce and play.
The cat is satisfied
when I have begged and tried.
Notice that the example cat poem would have a different “b” rhyme depending on whether you had begun by drafting
your first stanza or your last stanza. Which do you like better?? You must settle on one “b” rhyme that you prefer, and
use it throughout the entire poem.
You could re-write the final quatrain to match your “rug” rhyme in the cat example poem. The quatrain could become:
She purred as she denied
my chance to play. So smug,
the cat is satisfied
when I have begged and tried.
Compose the rest of the villanelle. Each new line should have the same meter. Refer often to the rhyme scheme as
you compose the lines and stanzas. Keep track of your refrain lines by drafting them in the different colors (or fonts)
throughout. Keep track of the rhyme of your other lines by drafting the last word of each “b” line in your third color (or
underline). The lines that have no color or font changes are your “a” lines. They must rhyme with your refrains.
When you begin writing each new tercet, place the refrain at the end of it. Decide whether you want the refrain to
be a separate stand-alone sentence at the end of this tercet, or to be part of the tercet “b” line’s meaning
(enjambment), or part of the next tercet’s meaning.
For example, in your cat villanelle, composing an enjambment of A2 into the next tercet might look like this:
The cat is satisfied
to sit upon a rug.
When I have begged, and tried
to get her on my side
with treats, she gives a shrug.
The cat is satisfied.
WRITING PRACTICE:
Can you finish our cat villanelle for writing practice? Just fill in the missing lines in any of our cat villanelle examples
below for fun.
The first writing practice example has been shortened (by two fewer tercets) for easiest practice, in a Short Villanelle
form. You only have to write two lines to complete it! The meter of each blank line should be six syllables in iambic
rhythm (ta-DUM ta-DUM ta-DUM). The rhyme sounds are supplied at the end of the two blank lines, to help you.
The other writing practice examples are full Passerat Villanelles, with increasing difficulty to complete.
Send us your cat villanelle writing practice if you want feedback from the Editor on rhyme and meter. Send to
Editor@TrellisMagazine.com. (The Editor will post her favorite completed cat examples in the blog during the contest, for
everyone’s enjoyment!)
CAT VILLANELLE #1-- SHORTENED VERSION (easiest to complete)
The cat is satisfied
to sit upon a rug.
When I have begged, and tried
to get her on my side
with treats, she gives a shrug.
The cat is satisfied.
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ug
when I have begged and tried.
She purred as she denied
my chance to play. So smug,
the cat is satisfied
when I have begged and tried.
CAT VILLANELLE #2—PASSERAT (fairly easy to complete)
The cat is satisfied
to sit upon a rug.
When I have begged, and tried
to get her on my side
with treats, she gives a shrug.
The cat is satisfied.
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ug
when I have begged and tried
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ug
the cat is satisfied
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ug
when I have begged and tried
She purred as she denied
my chance to play. So smug,
the cat is satisfied
when I have begged and tried.
CAT VILLANELLE #3 – PASSERAT (moderate difficulty)
The cat is satisfied,
sleeps on the rug all day
when I have begged and tried
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ay
the cat is satisfied
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ay
when I have begged and tried
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ay
the cat is satisfied
__________________________________ied (or -ide)
__________________________________ay
when I have begged and tried
She purred as she denied
my chance to pounce and play.
The cat is satisfied
when I have begged and tried.
CAT VILLANELLE #4 – PASSERAT (most difficult to complete)
My cat sits on the rug all day
__________________________________(rhyme b)
I wish she liked to pounce and play
__________________________________ay
__________________________________(rhyme b)
my cat sits on the rug all day
_________________________________ay
_________________________________(rhyme b)
I wish she liked to pounce and play
__________________________________ay
__________________________________(rhyme b)
my cat sits on the rug all day
_________________________________ay
_________________________________(rhyme b)
I wish she liked to pounce and play
________________________________ay
________________________________(rhyme b)
My cat sits on the rug all day.
I wish she liked to pounce and play.
| Contest Deadline - May 30, 2008 |