A Villanelle is a nineteen-line poem consisting of a very specific rhyming scheme: aba aba aba aba aba abaa.

The first and the third lines in the first stanza are repeated in alternating order throughout the poem, and appear together in the last couplet (last two lines).

One of the most famous Villanelle is "Do not go Gentle into that Good Night" by Dylan Thomas.

Example #1:

Runaway

Why do they runaway?
My soul so beautiful, so bright
But for some reason I keep them at bay

Sometimes I wish they would stay
They give up on me without a fight
Why do they runaway?

Some think I am pretty, I say I'm okay
Though this doesn't feel right
But for some reason I keep them at bay

What can I do, what can I say?
What causes their flight?
Why do they runaway?

Just when I think I've won their heart, they stray
I feel like the farthest planet in the night
But for some reason I keep them at bay

What have I done to chase them away?
My soul beckons to them like a beacon of light
Why do they runaway?
But for some reason I keep them at bay

Copyright © 2000 Julie Wright

Example #2:

A Temple On Her Bed

My heart, a cemetery of lovers dead,
My pilgrimage rests in her room so I can pray,
What is my religion but a temple on her bed!

My life is in the pace of a heart that fed 
On feelings thought to be of the One.  I never stay,
My heart, a cemetery of lovers dead.

We were an Aires and a Leo,an ecstasy that fled
On a shining wing, and we, from Venus, fell astray,
What is my religion but a temple on her bed!

In the Arabian nights, I'm a chapter in bright red,
Many take me a villain to be slain like my prey,
My heart, a cemetery of lovers dead.

She's a mosaic,a lure to my totem they try to behead,
A song I wrote, and I composed, a masterpiece I play,
What is my religion but a temple on her bed!

And I am myself a concession of all what is said,
For I'm following a behind-me-heart I care to obey.
My heart, a cemetery of lovers dead,
What is my religion but a temple on her bed.

Copyright © 2000 Ali Saad