Compare this poem to other villanelles in this book, such as DylanThomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night” and Wendy Cope’s “Lonely Hearts.” In what ways does Bishop bend the rules of the form?
What will be an ideal response?
- The Thomas and Cope poems strictly follow the form of the villanelle—the first line repeated exactly in lines 6, 12, and 18; the third in lines 9, 15, and 19; the two refrain lines riming with one another and with the first line of each succeeding stanza; the middle lines of each stanza riming with one another. Bishop varies the pattern in relatively small ways by using off-rimes in lines 4 and (especially) 16, and by slightly varying the phrasing of the first refrain in line 18. By far her most significant departure from the rules is the abandonment of the second refrain, retaining only the repetition of the rime word “disaster” at the end of each of the relevant lines. This procedure allows for greater flexibility and naturalness of expression, and makes possible the thematic progression described in the answer to Question 2, above.
Language Arts & World Languages
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