This highly intricate form was originally used for pastoral or idyllic
verse, and it is commonly reserved, as Mr. Dobson observes, for subjects
"full of sweetness and simplicity." In its typical form it consists of
nineteen lines, divided into five groups or stanzas of three and one of
four. There are but two rimes, and the two verses which constitute the
refrain recur again and again, line 1 reappearing as line 6, line 12,
and line 18, while line 3 reappears as line 9, line 15, and line 19. The
rime scheme of all the tercets is _aba_, of the conclusion _abaa_. Those
villanelles are considered most highly finished in which the refrain
recurs with slightly different significations.
On the history of this form, see J. Boulmier's _Les Villanelles_, Paris,
1878. The modern development of the villanelle has been largely
influenced by the work of Passerat (1534-1602), whose most famous
villanelle is the following specimen:
J'ay perdu ma tourterelle;
Est-ce-point elle que j'oy?
Je veux aller après elle.
Tu regrettes ta femelle;
Hélas! aussy fay-je moy:
J'ay perdu ma tourterelle.
Si ton amour est fidèle,
Aussy est ferme ma foy;
Je veux aller après elle.
Ta plainte se renouvelle?
Toujours plaindre je me doy:
J'ay perdu ma tourterelle.
En ne voyant plus la belle
Plus rien de beau je ne voy:
Je veux aller après elle.
Mort, que tant de fois j'apelle,
Prens ce que se donne à toy:
J'ai perdu ma tourterelle.
Je veux aller après elle.
(JEAN PASSERAT: _Villanelle._)
When I saw you last, Rose,
You were only so high;--
How fast the time goes!
Like a bud ere it blows,
You just peeped at the sky,
When I saw you last, Rose!
Now your petals unclose,
Now your May-time is nigh;--
How fast the time goes!
And a life,--how it grows!
You were scarcely so shy
When I saw you last, Rose!
In your bosom it shows
There's a guest on the sly;
How fast the time goes!
Is it Cupid? Who knows!
Yet you used not to sigh,
When I saw you last, Rose;--
How fast the time goes!
(AUSTIN DOBSON: _When I Saw You Last, Rose._)
A dainty thing's the Villanelle.
Sly, musical, a jewel in rhyme,
It serves its purpose passing well.
A double-clappered silver bell
That must be made to clink in chime,
A dainty thing's the Villanelle;
And if you wish to flute a spell,
Or ask a meeting 'neath the lime,
It serves its purpose passing well.
You must not ask of it the swell
Of organs grandiose and sublime--
A dainty thing's the Villanelle;
And, filled with sweetness, as a shell
Is filled with sound, and launched in time,
It serves its purpose passing well.
Still fair to see and good to smell
As in the quaintness of its prime,
A dainty thing's the Villanelle,
It serves its purpose passing well.
(W. E. HENLEY: _Villanelle._)
Wouldst thou not be content to die
When low-hung fruit is hardly clinging
And golden Autumn passes by?
Beneath this delicate rose-gray sky,
While sunset bells are faintly ringing,
Wouldst thou not be content to die?
For wintry webs of mist on high
Out of the muffled earth are springing,
And golden Autumn passes by.
O now when pleasures fade and fly,
And Hope her southward flight is winging,
Wouldst thou not be content to die?
Lest Winter come, with wailing cry
His cruel icy bondage bringing,
When golden Autumn hath passed by;
And thou with many a tear and sigh,
While life her wasted hands is wringing,
Shall pray in vain for leave to die
When golden Autumn hath passed by.
(EDMUND GOSSE: _Villanelle._)
Spring knocks at winter's frosty door:
In boughs by wild March breezes swayed
The bonnie bluebirds sing once more.
The brooks have burst their fetters hoar,
And greet with noisy glee the glade;
Spring knocks at winter's frosty door.
The swallow soon will northward soar,
The rush uplift its gleaming blade,
The bonnie bluebirds sing once more.
Soon sunny skies their gold will pour
O'er meads that breezy maples shade;
Spring knocks at winter's frosty door.
Along the reedy river's shore,
Fleet fauns will frolic unafraid,
The bonnie bluebirds sing once more.
And Love, the Love we lost of yore,
Will come to twine the myrtle braid;
Spring knocks at winter's frosty door,
The bonnie bluebirds sing once more.
(CLINTON SCOLLARD: _Spring Knocks at Winter's Frosty Door._)