villanelle
a short poem of fixed form, written in tercets, usually five in number, followed by a final quatrain, all being based on two rhymes.
Origin of villanelle
1Words Nearby villanelle
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use villanelle in a sentence
The great villanelle of serial failure, the inevitability of which is perfectly underscored by the form.
The villanelle is written in five three-lined stanzas, concluding with one of four lines.
The villanelle has been called "the most ravishing jewel worn by the Muse Erato."
And so it proved; he heard a sweet voice singing an old villanelle with a slow and melancholy refrain.
The Bath Keepers, v.1 (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume VII) | Charles Paul de KockThis he followed by English versions of the rondel, rondeau and villanelle.
Here, as in the villanelle, a change of signification in the repeated lines is thought to add to the charm of the form.
English Verse | Raymond MacDonald Alden, Ph.D.
British Dictionary definitions for villanelle
/ (ˌvɪləˈnɛl) /
a verse form of French origin consisting of 19 lines arranged in five tercets and a quatrain. The first and third lines of the first tercet recur alternately at the end of each subsequent tercet and both together at the end of the quatrain
Origin of villanelle
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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