Loss and longing rendered in strict poetic form
Villanelles are tricky poems with a strict template of repeated lines and rhymes--see if you can figure out the pattern in this one
“Villanelle” by Otto Leland Bohanon
How dreary the winds shriek and whine: The trembling shadows grow chill. O soul of my soul, wert thou mine! O where are the stars that did shine? The moonlight that tinselled the hill? How dreary the winds shriek and whine! Despair ’round my heart doth entwine, Far soundeth my cry weird and shrill: O soul of my soul, wert thou mine! I’ve quaffed to the dregs the mad wine Of passion, but under my sill How dreary the winds shriek and whine! ’Tis thine, is the dream so divine, That doth this vain yearning instill; O soul of my soul, wert thou mine! ’Tis mine, here to crave and to pine For what thou wilt never fulfill; How dreary the winds shriek and whine! O soul of my soul, wert thou mine!
What we love about this poem….
The villanelle form is so specific and restrictive that it might seem too daunting even to attempt. But oddly enough, there can be something liberating for poets in having a tight framework and a strict set of rules. We especially love the way the sounds of words get accentuated through the rhyme scheme, and even generate a sense of suspense about how the poet will find yet another word that rhymes with ‘ill’ or ‘wine’ and still fit the content of the poem. The demand to come up with so many rhyming words, along two intertwining tracks, makes for exciting reading. It’s like watching someone play a game and win.
About the author
Otto Leland Bohanon (1895-1932) was a writer, performer and composer who published his poetry in some of the major publications of the Harlem Renaissance: James Weldon Johnson’s The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) and the magazine The Crisis.
To read alongside...
The history of the villanelle spans the 16th century through to today. James Whitcomb Riley wrote the first American villanelle. Later writers such as E.A. Robinson and William Empson mastered the form, as did Elizabeth Bishop and Dylan Thomas. Thomas’s powerful ‘Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night’ is one of the best-known examples of a villanelle (here are the first three stanzas of it):
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.
You may also be interested in past newsletters featuring Harlem Renaissance writing, which you can find below, as we honour Black History Month (UK):
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