Rhythm The Villanelle Analysis

Rhythm: The Villanelle is a complex poem with a specific structure. The rhyme scheme is as follows ‘’aba aba aba aba aba abaa.’’ This means that the final word in the first and third lines in every tercet rhyme together: ‘’harder’’ and ‘’warder,’’ and the middle lines also rhyme with each other: ‘’bit’’ and ‘’tit’’. In the quatrain, the first, third and fourth lines rhyme with the rest of the 'A' lines, and the second line rhymes with the rest of the middle lines, or the 'B.' In this way, only two different rhyming sounds are used throughout the entire this adds unpredictable spice, giving special emphasis to the lines that rhyme. The villanelle utilises rhyme and repetition to create rhythm and build meaning, therefore one can clearly see …show more content…
‘’Quitting the Bars’’ is written in iambic pentameter (a ten-syllable line in which every other syllable is stressed). Meehan’s loosely stays around this meter, and many of her lines have the distinctive da-dum da-dum da-dum sound of iambic pentameter, Meehan lines have them at either ten or eleven syllables each. In terms of meter, each line is written in strongly-pronounced iambic pentameter: ‘’Quitting’s hard but staying sober’s harder.’’ The emphasis of the beat comes from all the one- and two-syllable words. They almost fall like footsteps, echoing the speaker’s trek forward (‘’The day by day; the drudge and boredom bit”), even as the evolving rhyme and refrains reflect her growing awareness as she makes her journey through addiction. The word ‘’hard’’ has a clear emphasis on the difficulty of the poet’s situation, one can only imagine this is ongoing and hard to get away from. The poets use of the words ‘’drudge’’ and ‘’boredom’’ indicate immediately that this is not a lively poem. The poet repeats the word ‘’warder’’, thus showing negative connotations with prison, one is left questioning if she is keeping herself captive or trying to look after herself. The word choice ‘’quit’’ indicated an obsessional theme, thus giving a glimpse of her mood: ‘’ You quit the bars; you quit the sordid ardour:’’ this indicates a meaning of alcohol bars and the bars of a prison cell, but there is no difference …show more content…
They can be read as enjambed lines too. Thus, creating a balance of fluency and declamatory rhetoric. The degree of line repetition is likely to promote unity, one can clearly empathise with the poets’ personal struggle. The repeating lines are strong and provocative enough to bear the weight of their very repetition, and the unique lines bound as they narrow the rhyme range, as they are attractively worded. The repeating patterns of lines A1 and A2 has a flavour that one would call ‘’progressive.’’ It is as if first one leg and then the other reaches out, as one is walked through a brief journey of thought and emotion. The repetition of lines almost creates a sense of compulsion and obsession. The line ‘’You sometimes think you got away with murder’’ stipulate reflection, as murder could be in the sense that all the damage she has caused due to her addiction, both to herself and others. Thus, giving one an insight on how difficult it is to stay sober and what serious damage addiction can cause. The obsessional theme is one way in which the inherent unity of the villanelle, a unity based on the proportional weight of the repeating lines is magnified. A monomaniacal dwelling on the poet’s problem can be adduced. It seems the mind of the persona is stuck in a