A Year of Bad Poetry

Monday Challenge – Villanelle December 5, 2008

(from Monday, December 1, 2008)

As a fan of Dylan Thomas’ famous “Rage” poem, DJ Nezz decided that it would be a good poem style to tackle.  The villanelle has 19 lines, 5 stanzas of three lines and 1 stanza of four lines with two rhymes and two refrains. The 1st, then the 3rd lines alternate as the last lines of stanzas 2,3,and 4, and then stanza 5 (the end) as a couplet. It is usually written in tetrameter (4 feet) or pentameter.The structure is:

line 1 – a – 1st refrain
line 2 – b
line 3 – a – 2nd refrain

line 4 – a
line 5 – b
line 6 – a – 1st refrain (same as line 1)

line 7 – a
line 8 – b
line 9 – a – 2nd refrain (same as line 2)

line 10 – a
line 11 – b
line 12 – a – 1st refrain (same as line 1)

line 13 – a
line 14 – b
line 15 – a – 2nd refrain (same as line 2)

line 16 – a
line 17 – b
line 18 – a – 1st refrain (same as line 1)
line 19 – a – 2nd refrain (same as line 2)

Freedom is a right, put up a Fight

Freedom is an inalienable right,

Not something just to be given away.

Resist others authority, put up a fight.

Liberty doesn’t just belong to those with might

Or deserved only by those who can pay.

Freedom is an inalienable right.

Responsibility is often treated like a lady of the night

Abused and shrugged off by those who may.

Resist others authority, put up a fight.

The powers that be look down on us with spite,

Stealing what’s ours in a pompous display.

Freedom is an inalienable right.

In the hustle and bustle, it is easy to lose sight.

Easier to just complain, point fingers, but obey.

Resist others authority, put up a fight.

This is not the time to be polite,

No matter what others might say.

Freedom is an inalienable right,

Resist others authority, put up a fight!

-DJ Nezz