A villanelle is a nineteen line poem with a strict rhyme scheme. It consists of five tercets with two lines repeating throughout and ending the poem. The first and third lines of the first tercet repeat alternately until the end. Sylvia Plath's "Mad Girl's Love Song" is provided as an example. The structure requires lines ending in rhyming words A and B to repeat in a specific pattern. To write a villanelle, choose rhyming words and two repeating lines, then fill in the structure ensuring the rhyme pattern is followed. The villanelle form can also be applied to music by repeating phrases and rhyming the last bars in the same pattern.

1. How to write a Villanelle
Emily Knighton

2. What is a Villanelle
A villanelle is an type of poem that is nineteen lines long, split into 4 three line verses and one 4
line verse.. Certain lines repeat and specific word rhyme. Below is an example of a villanelle
written by Sylvia Plath which is called “Mad girls love song.” the rhyming (or half rhyming)
words are in red font / blue font.
"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I should have loved a thunderbolt instead;
I lift my lids and all is born again. At least when spring comes they roar back
again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.) I shut my eyes and al the world drops
dead.
(I think i made you up inside my head.)”
The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.

3. The Structure
The structure of the villanelle is very complex. Certain words have to rhyme and
certain lines must be repeated throughout the poem. The end words of the lines
marked A must rhyme and the same for B. Blue lines must be the same, green lines
the same and all the whites lines are different.
A
B
A
A
B
A
A
B
A
A
B
A
A
B
A
A
B
A
A

4. How to go about writing a
Villanelle
1) Start by thinking up some really good words
that rhyme and some that can be different parts
of speech. (e.g light can be an adjective, noun
and a verb.)
2) The next step is to come up with two repeating
lines. For these it is best that by adding or
taking a way punctuation marks you can
change the meaning.
3) Once you have the repeating lines you can
begin to fill in the gaps making sure that you
stick to the rhyming pattern.
4) Once you have finished ( or simply filled in the
other lines) read the poem to yourself to see if
you want to make any changes. Don’t worry if
you take out whole lines each change make
you poem better.

5. Other uses of the structure
The structure used for writing a villanelle does not simply have to be kept to poetry. A
villanelle structure could also be used for writing a piece of music. For example the
repeating lines (or phrases) are as in the poetry repeated. The rhyming words are the
same last bar of each phrase. Not just the structure for a villanelle can be used to write a
piece of music. Other poetic structures such as a Luc Bat and others. Types of musical
structure can also be applied to poetry such as ----------- and ----------. Below is the first
verse ( three phrases) of a piece of music following the structure of a Villanelle.
2
4
“A” rhyming word
Line 1 ( repeating line 1) Line 2
“B” rhyming word Line 3 ( repeating line 2) “A” rhyming
word