Lesson 32.
The Story We Know
1. Describe a villanelle by explicating the stanza pattern and the rhyme scheme of this poem. How many different end rhymes are in the poem? How many times is each sound repeated? Which words are repeated exactly at the ends of lines, in what pattern? How does the last stanza use the rhyming words? Why is this appropriate at the end of the poem?
- A villanelle is “A fixed form borrowed from early French poetry with nineteen lines (five stanzas of three lines, a last stanza of four lines) of any length or meter and two rhymes only, aba, employed in a set pattern. Line 1 is repeated as lines 6, 12, and 18. Line 3 is repeated as lines 9, 15, and 19.” This conforms exactly to a villanelle because there are only two end rhymes, starting with hello and fine. Hello is repeated from line 1, and into line 6, 12, and 18 only, as know is in lines 3, 9, 15, and 19. The last stanza uses the two end rhymes in a way to summarize what the whole poem was about.
2. Isolationg the b rhymes (middle line of each tercet) gives us this list: fine, wine, nine, line, pine, sign. What is the significance of each of these words to the whole poem?
- The b rhymes tell us a story of life when you meet someone. I wouldn’t of known exactly what each word ment without looking in the back of the book, but now that I have I understand that “fine” is a word used when you first meet someone, as if they were asking “how are you”, and “wine” is a possible drink you would share as you were getting to know each other. “Nine” is later in the night showing their night slowly coming to an end, “line” is as if a line in a story, or a relationship rather. “Pine” is grieving for a long time, as if the relationship ended? And “the cold white sign” shows the end of it. I belive thats what they were getting at.
3. Incremental repetition tends to augment meaning and accumulate significance. What variations in meaning are present in the following groups of repetitions and what is their effect?
line 1: same.Hello,
line 6: same, Hello,
line 12: same, Hello.
line 18: end. Hello,
line 3: Good-bye at the end.
line 9: Good-bye. In the end
line 15: Good-bye is the end
line 19: Good-bye is the only
line 3: every story we know
line 9: this is a story we know
line 15: every story we know
line 19: We know, we know.
- I’m not going to lie, I am completely clueless as to how to answer this question, or what it even really means. One thing im going to guess upon is that the last lines of the sets, the “end. Hello, Good-bye is the only, We know, we know.” sounds very much like a closing, as if finality, maybe she knows that everything comes to an end? Thats about all i got out of that though, except for the repetition for effect to reiterate that every story is the same. You meet someone “Hello” eventually there is a “Good-bye”.
Filed by tittle at March 7th, 2008 under Uncategorized
