For those with powerful poignant tale to tell
Outsiders seeking structure so sublime
A strong expressive form is villanelle

Its lines repeat like sounding of a bell
Each tercet ends with alternating chime
For those with powerful poignant tale to tell

It saves us from unstructured rhymeless hell
So modernists disdain its fixed-form crime
So villainous a form is villanelle

Obsess against oppression from my cell
Its bars and beating speak for doing time
For those with powerful poignant tale to tell

The first line landed where the third one fell
The middle lines of each short stanza rhyme
A pulsing pressing form is villanelle

You're sure to fall beneath its six-verse spell
With this sweet form attain poetic prime
For those with powerful poignant tale to tell
A strong subversive form is villanelle