villanelle

/vɪləˈnɛl/

Etymology

From the French villanelle, from Italian villanella, from villano (“peasant”), from Latin vīllānus (“farmhand”), from vīlla (“estate”). The origin references the pastoral themes originally associated with this form.

Why this word is great

VILLANELLE — [Noun] A 19-line poetic form consisting of five tercets and one quatrain, with a strict rhyme scheme and repeated lines. From the French villanelle, from Italian villanella ("rustic song"), from villano ("peasant"), from Latin vīllānus ("farmhand"), derived from vīlla ("estate"). Unlike the "sonnet" (which pivots on a volta) or the "ballad" (which unfurls a story), the villanelle is a closed loop, an incantation. It is the hypnotic recurrence of Dylan Thomas’s "Do not go gentle into that good night," the way Elizabeth Bishop’s "The art of losing isn’t hard to master" circles back like a stubborn grief, or the way a farmer might chant the same refrain at dusk, season after season—a form that insists some things must be said twice, or not at all.

noun

A type of poem, consisting of five tercets and one quatrain, with only two rhymes.“By definition the villanelle is restrictive, because it demands nineteen lines on two rhymes in six stanzas, the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the concluding quatrain.”