Posted by Emily Frost-Morgan (24.23.56.28) on July 5, 2005 at 10:49:44 p.m.:
Emily Frost-Morgan
English 301
Jeanne Guerrin
Essay 3-rough draft
5 July 2005
Poems are like objects; they come in a variety of shapes and forms. For the most part the form of the poem is its overall structure. Two very complex forms for poems are the Villanelle and the Sestina. The Villanelle is considered a “fixed form” being that it can be categorized by the patterns of its lines, meter, rhymes and stanzas. The Sestina is also considered a “fixed form”, like the Villanelle, but a little more challenging than the Villanelle and also does not rhyme. Examples of the villanelle and sestina forms are Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that good night” and Elizabeth Bishop’s “Sestina”. P1
Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that good night” consists of six stanzas, five tercets; three lines, and one concluding quatrain; four lines. The first and the third lines of the first tercet have the same rhyming scheme, which also are repeated in each of the following tercets and the final two lines of the quatrain. An example of the rhyming scheme would be aba. This villanelle creates “haunting echoes” in Dylan Thomas’ poem. P2
When Dylan Thomas wrote this villanelle his father was close to death. Throughout the poem the theme is about how Dylan Thomas feels about death. Dylan Thomas describes the way he feels about his father’s closeness to death through his poem, “And you, my father, there on the sad height, / Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. / Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (688, lines 16-19). P3
Dylan Thomas’ choices of words for his poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” are angry and direct, basically how he feels about his father’s death. Thomas uses words such as “rage”, “dying”, “burn” and “rave” to convey his emotions. Thomas repeats line one, “Do not go gentle into that good night; and line three, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (688, lines 1, 3) throughout his poem. These two lines best describe the way Dylan Thomas feels toward the end of his father’s life. P4
Dylan Thomas repeats both lines one and three, throughout his poem, giving the poem’s theme and meaning more emphasis. The reader is reminded the importance of the authors true feelings of death. Thomas uses metaphors for death throughout his poem. “Do not go gentle into that good night”, “good night” being death; and “dying of the light”, meaning the “light”, in other words life being burnt out. P5
The sestina is a more complex fixed form of poetry than the villanelle. It consists of thirty-nine lines ranging any length divided into six stanzas of six lines and then a concluding stanza of three lines. The three-line stanza being called an envoy. P6
The sestina, like the villanelle, has a rhyming scheme. But unlike the villanelle, the rhyming scheme of the sestina is difficult. The sestina requires the repetition of six words at the end of the first stanza’s lines to the end ends of the lines in the other six-line stanzas. P7
Elizabeth Bishop uses this complexity in her poem, “Sestina”. She repeats the words “house, “grandmother”, “child”, “stove”, “almanac” and “tears”, the ending words of each line of the first stanza as the end of every line in the other stanzas. P8
Although sestina’s usually do not rhyme, the repetition of the words almost give it a rhyming effect. Elizabeth Bishop also uses the last word of the last line of the stanza as the last word in first line of the next stanza giving it the smoothness and lets the poem flow easily.
Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “Sestina”, describes a grandmother and a child inside making tea on a rainy September day. It seems that the grandmother is depressed, maybe because it is raining outside, because of the repetition of “tears” throughout the whole poem, “laughing and talking to hide her tears” (690, line 5).
Elizabeth also uses imagery through her poem, “Sestina”. Bishop’s word orders are like visual pictures, the reader can follow along picturing the poem through his or her head as they read. “She thinks that her equinoctial tears / and the rain that beats on the roof of the house” (690, lines 6-7). The reader is able to picture the image of the rain beating on the house. “It’s time for tea now; but the child / is watching the teakettle’s small hard tears / dance like mad on the hot black stove” (690, lines 5-8). Again the reader can picture the teakettle’s condensation drip down the teakettle onto the hot stove.
Bishop’s “Sestina”, setting is seen through her poem, “She shivers and says she thinks the house / feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove” (690, lines 23-24). The cold and rainy day in fall and the repetition of tears contribute to the tone of the poem. The “Little Marvel Stove” brings warmth and comfort which is contrasted, to the tone of the poem, by the chilly tearful day.
Poets use villanelle and sestina forms to challenge themselves and as well as the readers, carefully crafting words that will emphasis their emotions and tones. Dylan Thomas villanelle created a “haunting echo” with his theme of death emphasizing “rage” and “dying” with repetition throughout the poem. Elizabeth Bishop’s demanding sestina emphasized the image of “tears” with everything relating to sadness and tears.