Villanelle Poetry

Villanelle

This is a French poetic form that developed in the 1500s and was named for Francois Villon, French poet and vagabond.

A villanelle is based on a very specific rhyme scheme that alternates only two different end rhymes.  It follows the pattern aba aba aba aba aba abaa.  The first and third lines of the poem are repeated as the last lines of the following stanzas, in alternate order (i.e., the 1st line becomes the last line in the second stanza, and the 3rd line becomes the last line in the third stanza, etc.), and the same two lines are also the last two lines of the poem.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
--Dylan Thomas

You may want to start with the last two lines of your villanelle; since they will be repeated so many times in the poem itself, they should have most of the meaning.