Opal Reflections
Perspectives through Prose, Poetry and Photography
Fade to Black (Speakeasy #146)
Sitcoms’ sputter; and laugh tracks’ bellow-brash, Can’t smother smooth the sulfur stench of coal, While days and nights of eons fade to black.
My soul’s soliloquy is crassly crashed By “Contrafibularity”, how droll, “I sat there and waited, but he never came back.”
He vowed someday that he’d return, my heart to clasp, The promised wait, endurable as toll, While days and nights of eons fade to black.
In slate-steel blue, his eyes shone unabashed, Seducing me with guile; his craft ‘control’, “I sat there and waited, but he never came back.”
Mephisto in the flesh, all others could behold, save my deluded soul; I, blinded, held fast, While days and nights of eons fade to black, “I sat there and waited, but he never came back.”
This “Villanelle”* was written for The Speakeasy #146.
The Prompt:
“This week, the video is a scene from the British comedy show, Blackadder the Third. …This clip is called “C is for Contrafibularity.”
“I sat there and waited, but he never came back.”
*”The highly structured villanelle is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem’s two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.”
(Excerpted from poets.org (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5796)
26 Comments on “Fade to Black (Speakeasy #146)”
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Lighthouse in the Mist, Cape May, NJ
Bandit
Festive View from the Pub, Peddler’s Village – Lahaska, PA.
Home Sweet Home
Opal Reflections 
I’ve done a couple of forms that require the repetition of lines, though not this particular one yet, and they are very challenging even when freed from the constraints of prompts. You pulled this off wonderfully!
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Beautifully written…the rolling tempo was like the echo of waves upon the shore. Love it!
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Thanks, Peggy.
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You picked a perfect picture for this poem — it read like waves coming up on the sand and flowing back. Very nice use of the form.
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Esther,
Thank you. That is what I had in mind, exactly.
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This is lovely. I’ve never heard of a villanelle before. The repitition works so beautifully with your refrains.
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Thanks. It amazed me to discover how many different poetry forms there are. If you’d like to read more about them, http://www.poets.org/ is a very good reference that provides examples, as well. Thank you for your comment!
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Thank you! I’m sure I could lose myself for an hour or two reading all about them.
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Nice use of such a structured form! I love this line: “Can’t smother smooth the sulfur stench of coal” – wonderfully done! 🙂
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Thanks Suzanne…I liked that one too!
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I like how you repeated the prompt line throughout.
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Thanks, Karen. The Villanelle form dictates repetition, but in this case the line itself was so beautifully intense that repetition enhanced it’s meaning…for me. Thank you for your feedback.
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I like it! Very interesting form, and you executed it wonderfully!
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Thank you. It requires discipline that free verse doesn’t, but it’s strangely intriguing. Thank you for your comment.
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Wow. Reminds me of poems from Ireland and England from centuries past. Great command of words….you should publish this poem, honest!
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Thank you very much.
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You learn something new every day! I don’t recall ever learning about a villanelle but it worked really well with the prompt!
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Six months ago, I hadn’t either, but writing one is almost addictive. Thank you for stopping by and for taking time to comment.
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Beautifully done! I love the repetition of lines, it gave it a haunting vibe to me.
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Thanks, Janna. Haunting was what I was going for. You nailed it!
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Joanne, it’s so cool that you did a villanelle! What a challenge. I wasn’t familiar with the form and appreciate that you adopted it for this challenge.
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Lauren,
Thanks…I’ve only done a few myself, so it’s quite a change to adhere to the form. Once you get started, it actually makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. Your feedback is appreciated.
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I love your song like rhyming response ! Beautifully written poem !
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Thanks, Lala. The ‘villanelle’ Is a challenging poetic form, but fun. It seemed to lend itself well to the prompt.
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Lovely poem.
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Thank you.
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