Many well-known and highly regarded poets have used this poetic form to compose fantastic verses. For inspiration, check out “The Art of Losing” by Elizabeth Bishop, “Villanelle After a Burial” by Stephen Cramer, and “Do Not Go Gently into That Goodnight” by Dylan Thomas. Read these and others to get a feel for the form before you start. See the link below in the Resources section for more examples.
Brainstorm possible subjects for your villanelle. Since you may be working on your villanelle for quite some time, choose carefully! Consider why you're writing your poem. Are you trying to document a moving experience? Are you planning on giving your poem to someone or honor someone's memory? When you think of this person, place or experience, what images or words come to mind? Take each potential subject and devote at least fifteen minutes to writing down everything you can think of about it. Concentrate on images and don't censor yourself. You never know what ideas might come in handy once you're writing!
Once you have a list of possible topics, choose one to focus on. For your first villanelle, selecting the subject that you were able to brainstorm the most about might be the easy route. However, if you feel strongly about another subject, go for it!
Before you write anything else, make sure you understand the unique form of the villanelle. When you're finished, your villanelle will consist of 6 stanzas (or poetic paragraphs) of three lines each. The last stanza will be a bit different; it will have four lines. The first (A1) and last (A2) lines of your first stanza will be your repeating lines. These lines are supposed to rhyme. Line A1 will also be the last line of the second and fourth stanzas. Line A2 will also be the last line of the third and fifth stanzas. The sixth stanza will end with A1 followed by A2. As for the rhyme scheme, the first lines of all the stanzas will rhyme (a). The second lines of all the stanzas will rhyme (b). Confused yet? Use this as your guide. A1bA2abA1abA2abA1abA2abA1A2Remember, all the lines with the same letter, whether capitalized or not, rhyme! The lines with capital A's are the repeated ones. When in doubt or discouraged, go back to the examples you read over in Section 1.
Since your repeating lines make up so much for your poem, write those first. Use these lines to emphasize what you think is the most important or powerful part of your poem. A strong image or sentiment that expresses your poem's theme works best. To make writing your poem easier, consider ending these lines with words that having plenty of rhyming options. You might have be flexible with your images in order to do this; for example, you'll have a much easier rhyming "red" or "pink" than "fuchsia." A rhyming dictionary and thesaurus can help at this stage, so feel free to consult them.
Now you can fill in the holes around your repeating lines. Images work well here, too. Go back to your brainstorming and see which ideas you think you can rewrite to fit your rhyme scheme and best fit the overall style and theme of your poem.
Congratulations! The first draft is definitely the hardest part of writing a villanelle! Now you can tweak your draft to get just the right sound and feel. Your poem will both sound and look better if the lines are approximately the same number of syllables. If some of your lines are too long, cut out unnecessary words. This will also strengthen the punch of your images and ideas. If you have a few lines that seem too short, see if you can add some descriptive words to help your reader visualize what you are talking about.
Take advantage of soft rhymes. Soft rhymes don't technically rhyme the way "car" and "far" do, but sound similar enough that they will work within the structure of a villanelle. "Faster" and "matter" don't truly rhyme, as they have different ending sounds, but these two words come close enough to rhyming that they could be used effectively as end words in the lines of a villanelle. Soft rhymes often sound less sing-songy than hard, or traditional, rhymes. Try to work a few soft rhymes into your poem and see how they sound.
Finally, always read your work out loud. Your ears pick up errors your eyes might not. You can also make sure your poem flows well if you read it out loud. Finish up your poem and walk away from it for a few hours. Then read it out loud again with fresh eyes and ears.