Poetry, I do suppose,

Is feeling molded into prose.
A metaphor or simile
And there you have it: poetry.

March 16, 2011

The Thinker

On Monday I wrote my first villanelle. It was highly challenging but immensely gratifying. A villanelle has only two rhyme sounds. The first and third lines of the first stanza are rhyming refrains that alternate as the third line in each successive stanza and form a couplet at the close. A villanelle is nineteen lines long, consisting of five tercets and one concluding quatrain.


THE THINKER

Weary and alone I stand
Evoking tender moments passed,
Deep in thought and head in hand.

Forever loving thoughts withstand
The waves of torment and hold fast.
Weary and alone I stand

Recalling beaches, softly tanned,
On which the lovers kissed the last.
Deep in thought and head in hand

I clear my thoughts as blown like sand.
The final tide has gone. Alas!
Weary and alone I stand,

Looking o’er the lonely strand
And on toward seas of colored glass,
Deep in thought and head in hand.

For lovers cannot understand
That nothing’s here that’s here to last.
Weary and alone I stand –
Deep in thought and head in hand.
at

2 comments:

Peter Goulding said...

Nicholas, this is bloody good for a first villanelle, for any villanelle, in fact!! Lovely flow from start to finish and some great images. You have 2 lines ending in 'last' in it - the second one is a great line, so would maybe try changing the first.

March 16, 2011 at 1:25 PM
Nicholas said...

I'll have to sleep on this one for a while. That first "last" bugs me too though. Thanks, Peter! I finally wrote my first traditional poem.

March 18, 2011 at 11:32 PM

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