Challenge
Write a Villanelle, My Genius Poets!
The villanelle is a French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas. These two refrain lines from the final couplet in the quatrain. Here's what that looks like (letters for rhyme scheme, numbers mean a line repeats):
A1 B A2//A B A1//A B A2//A B A1//A B A1 A2
No theme, no prompt other than make it great.
For examples of villanelles, please enjoy:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44976/the-house-on-the-hill
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/150043/letter-to-my-blackout
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47536/one-art
21 reads
THE ROSE CITY
The ruins run across the walls;
Carved into stone, their legend speaks
Through the hauntingly beautiful halls.
As Petra's ancient artwork calls,
Through the old houses that creak;
The ruins run across the walls.
It's history, one can't help but recall;
As intricate efforts and hard work leak
Through the hauntingly beautiful halls.
Smattering of bullets decorate it all,
One goes back in time, wonder at its peak;
But now, the ruins run across the walls.
The stories, like the sirens call,
spread their songs in a way that leave you weak;
Through the hauntingly beautiful halls.
Traditions echo through and stall,
Sometimes alluring, sometimes meek.
The ruins run across the walls,
Those hauntingly beautiful halls.