The villanelle is a poetic form comprising five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two repeating, rhyming refrains which run through the poem and form the final two lines. These refrains are supported by a supporting rhyme. This will all become clear if you look up Dylan Thomas’s, Do not go gentle into that good night. The title is the first refrain, and the second refrain is: Rage rage against the dying of the light. The supporting rhymes are: day, they, bay, way, gay, pray. The villanelle is a 16th century Italian pastoral poetic form.
So what’s my news about villanelles? I’ve been trying to write one. I have posted recently about the writing circle I’ve joined, Milktown Writers. It’s a really vibrant group of writers, brought together by Jeff Phelps and Gavin Grant. We meet once a month in Melksham Library. Melksham means milk town in Anglo-Saxon I think. We are planning an exhibition of our work in the library, and our next meeting will be to review pieces we’ve written and decide want we want to exhibit. The theme is Melksham / Milktown. I decided to write a villanelle.
I won’t publish my whole villanelle here, I’ll save it for the meeting. However my refrains are:
Write here, in this library of congress
Ideas, words, and writers coalesce
I’ve drafted two versions. In the first the minor rhyme is with Melksham, and in the second it’s Milktown. Town affords rather more rhyming opportunities than sham, but that doesn’t necessary clinch it, for me anyway. Observant readers may have noticed that there is a villanelle in the picture, which appears to be about Melksham and writing, but doesn’t include my refrains. When I had written my villanelles I thought I’d ask ChatGBT to have a go. So the villanelle in the picture has been written by AI, artificial intelligence. I simply asked it to write a villanelle about a writing circle in Melksham. It has done that. It has followed the villanelle structure perfectly, and it has found acceptable rhymes. It knows what a writing circle is, and has captured the idea of writers coming together to help each other. I don’t think it’s quite as good as either of my attempts, but I’m biased. I am actually starting to worry about AI.