By the end of this lesson, as a class we will be able to:
1) Identify a Villanelle poetic form
2) Define the relevant technical literary terms (i.e. tercet, quatrain, refrain)
3) Analyse the content of a Villanelle through the poem's formal and literary features
Activity 1: What do you already know about poetry?
Let's refresh our memories.
Get into pairs
Take out one handphone to share for this activity
Access the Mentimeter site your teacher has opened up
Recall some poetic devices and features you can remember and submit them to the word cloud
(Create a Mentimeter Word Cloud)
Activity 2: Form in Life and Poetry
As you watch the following video, here are some questions you might want to consider:
- Where do we see rhythm in real life? - What effects can repetition have on readers of poetry?
- Does the video mention any literary devices you are not yet familiar with?
What is a Villanelle?
Activity 3: "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas
Now that we know some basic features of a Villanelle, let's see one. Your teacher is going to take you through a seminal Villanelle by Dylan Thomas title "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night". You might want to take out some highlighters or pens of different colours as your teacher models how to analyse the poem and answer the following questions.
Listen carefully as your teacher reads the poem aloud. What are some things that catch your attention?
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.
Let's think about what we have just heard:
How did the poem make you feel?
What do the refrains in this Villanelle tell you about some the poem's thematic concerns?
Villanelles end with a quatrain rather than a tercet. Do you think the extra line has any meaning in the context of this poem?
Activity 4: "Mad Girl's Love Song" by Sylvia Plath
Now, let's have you read the next poem aloud. Could we have two volunteers? Label yourselves A and B.
Student A will read the refrains.
Student B will read everything else apart from the refrains.
"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again. (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. (I think I made you up inside my head.)
I should have loved a thunderbird instead; At least when spring comes they roar back again. I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. (I think I made you up inside my head.)"
Well done!
Remember how your teacher annotated the previous poem? Let's take 5 minutes to now individually do the same with this poem on our own worksheets.
How can you link what you've annotated to the meaning of form in Sylvia Plath's Villanelle? Consider these questions:
Based on the refrains, what do you think are some of the thematic concerns in this poem?
What do you notice about the rhyme scheme of this poem? How is it different from Dylan Thomas’s poem? Do you think there is a meaning to the rhyme scheme in this poem?
What is interesting about the use of punctuations in this poem?
Homejoy
You will each be given a worksheet on Elizabeth Bishop's Villanelle, "One Art". Think about what we have learned in class today with the previous two poems and fill in the respective questions accordingly.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
Describe the persona's tone in the poem. Does it change, and if so, where do you notice this change?
What are the ‘things’ that the persona has lost? List them out as the poem has sequenced them. What do you notice about the order of the things the persona mentions she has lost? What does this tell you about her experience of losing “you”?
What do you notice about the refrains in this poem? How does the Bishop’s use of refrains in this poem help you to understand her feelings when she experiences loss?
Resources
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