A villanelle poem contains 19
lines: Five tercets (3-line stanzas)
followed by an ending quatrain (4-line stanza).
The first and third lines in the
first stanza are repeated.
First, the rhyme scheme. There
are only two rhymes in the Villanelle expressed by the letters 'A' and 'B'.
ABA (Stanza 1)
ABA (Stanza 2)
ABA (Stanza 3)
ABA (Stanza 4)
ABA (Stanza 5)
ABAA (Stanza 6 Concluding
Quatrain)
Second, the refrains. The first and the third lines are refrains
that are repeated four times each. Lower case ‘a’ and ‘b’ represent new lines.
Referring to the first line as A and the third line as A3 for the refrains, the
pattern would be:
A b A3 (Stanza 1)
a b A (Stanza 2)
a b A3 (Stanza
3)
a b A (Stanza 4)
a b A3 (Stanza 5)
a b A A3 (Stanza 6 and concluding
quatrain)
Notice that the first and third
lines alternate as refrains throughout the villanelle until the final quatrain
in which both refrains appear. One of the best examples of the villanelle is
Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into
That Good Night."
Source: Poets.org Villanelle form
Unfortunately, they do not allow access from a blog link so I suggest doing a google search.
The Poetry Foundation