Writing for Pleasure 2
Contact: writing2@horshamu3a.org.uk
This is a poetry style called a Villanelle, which we experimented with at one of the meetings of the Writing For Pleasure Group 2.
Bob Osgerby came up with this wonderful version, a great advert for the Horsham U3A group which, I am sure, you will agree.
Let’s celebrate Horsham U3A
Created in Nineteen Ninety-Three
Things to do nearly every day.
Keep boredom and ennui well at bay
Small subscription, then almost free
Let’s celebrate Horsham U3A.
So all join in and have your say
The nicest people, all friends to be
Things to do nearly every day.
Walks, Bridge and Writing, we wouldn’t say nay
No need to feel you’re all at sea
Let’s celebrate Horsham U3A.
Gardens, Short Read, whatever you may
Music and Scrabble, these too you see
Things to do nearly every day.
So don’t be shy and make your way
Eight hundred strong, a family,
Let’s celebrate Horsham U3A
Things to do nearly every day.
For those of you unfamiliar with Villanelle, it consists of five stanzas of three lines followed by a single stanza of four lines, for a total of nineteen lines. It is structured by two repeating rhymes and two refrains; the first line serves as the last line of the second and fourth stanzas and the third line of the first stanza serves as the last line of the third and fifth stanzas.
Complicated? Maybe, but fun to have a go at. The most famous example is probably “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas.