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Villanelle

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A villanelle is a tightly structured 19-line French-derived form featuring five tercets and a final quatrain, with two alternating refrains and only two rhymes throughout.

Detailed Definition
A villanelle is a highly structured French-derived form consisting of nineteen lines: five tercets followed by a quatrain, with two repeating refrains and a strict ABA rhyme scheme; its obsessive repetitions—exemplified in Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night”—create haunting, incantatory effects ideal for themes of longing or grief.
Example
Example in poetry:
A Villanelle repeats lines 1 and 3 alternately, ending with both: Dylan Thomas’s "Do not go gentle into that good night... / Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Additional Notes
Villanelle: A 19-line form with five tercets and a quatrain, using two refrains and two rhymes (ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA); known for obsessive, meditative quality (e.g., “Do not go gentle…”).
Also Known As
Fixed form French form Nineteen-line poem Refraining verse Period nineteen-liner
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