Villanelles 101

It's a song, folks.

In a desperate attempt to remember the villanelle rhyme scheme, here is an intro with some suggestions for this apparently very common and pedestrian yet awfully complicated form.

It has 6 stanzas in total, 5 with three lines and a "resolutive" one of four at the end. Some lines are repeated, so I'll just number them because honestly it's complicated. Also, the rhyme scheme is aba.

S1:
1
2
3

S2:
4
5
1

S3:
7
8
3

S4:
10
11
1

S5:
13
14
3

S6:
16
17
1
3

The repetition is often subverted in contemporary villanelles, 'cause poetry, you know. More contemporary authors will usually change the repeated lines for effect, such as Wendy Cope's twisted and hilarious Reading Scheme, and Elizabeth Bishop's masterful One Art.