The best examples of exploring villanelle refrains: 3 examples writers can learn from

Let’s skip the theory lecture and go straight to the good stuff: how refrains actually behave in real villanelles. When people search for examples of exploring villanelle refrains: 3 examples, what they really want is: Show me how those repeating lines can do more than just echo.

At the heart of every villanelle are two lines:

• Refrain 1: the first line of the poem, which repeats at the end of stanzas 2 and 4, and again as the second-to-last line of the poem.
• Refrain 2: the third line of the poem, which repeats at the end of stanzas 3 and 5, and again as the final line.

The magic comes from how those lines change in meaning as the poem moves forward. Let’s walk through three of the best examples that show different ways refrains can work—and then build out more real examples you can borrow from.

Example of a fixed refrain that deepens in meaning

One of the most famous examples of exploring villanelle refrains: 3 examples almost always starts with Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night.” It’s the go-to classroom villanelle for a reason: the refrains barely change on the page, but they grow heavier and more emotional with every repetition.

The two refrains are:

• “Do not go gentle into that good night”
• “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”

On the surface, these lines are nearly identical each time they appear. There are no fancy substitutions, no dramatic rewordings. So why do they feel so different by the end?

Because each stanza adds a new lens:

• First, the speaker talks in general terms about wise men, good men, wild men, grave men.
• Each group shows a different reason to resist death.
• By the time we reach the final stanza, we realize the speaker is begging his father personally to fight.

The refrains don’t change visually, but the context around them shifts. This is one of the best examples of how to keep your refrain text stable while letting its emotional meaning evolve.

Try this strategy in your own villanelle:

Write a refrain that could be read in at least three different emotional tones—calm, pleading, angry, resigned. Keep the words the same every time, but let each stanza push the reader toward a new way of hearing that line.

For example, imagine a villanelle about insomnia:

• Refrain 1: “The city will not let me sleep tonight”
• Refrain 2: “I watch the red clock bleeding out its light”

Early on, those lines might feel observational. Later, as the speaker gets more desperate, the same words feel more claustrophobic. That’s the Thomas approach in a modern, urban setting.

Example of a refrain that shifts slightly on the tongue

Another powerful example of exploring villanelle refrains: 3 examples comes from the way some poets let their refrains bend just a little. The structure stays recognizable, but a word or phrase changes to reflect the speaker’s evolving mindset.

Think about Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art.” It’s technically a villanelle, even though it plays pretty fast and loose with some expectations. The core refrain is:

• “The art of losing isn’t hard to master”

But Bishop keeps modifying what surrounds it:

• “Lose something every day. Accept the fluster…”
• “Then practice losing farther, losing faster…”
• “I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or / next-to-last, of three loved houses went.”

By the end, the poem is openly struggling to keep the same cool, casual tone:

• “It’s evident / the art of losing’s not too hard to master / though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.”

The refrain is technically still there, but the parenthetical “(Write it!)” shows the speaker fighting to say the line and mean it. This is a subtle but powerful way to explore refrains: keep the skeleton of the line, but let the emotional pressure warp it slightly.

How to mimic this in your own work:

Create a refrain that you almost repeat exactly, but introduce small disruptions:

• Start with: “I always say I’m fine, and then I’m fine.”
• Later: “I always say I’m fine, and then I’m… fine.”
• Later still: “I always say I’m fine. I say I’m fine.”

The changes are tiny, but the reader feels the speaker losing control over the sentence.

This kind of refraining is one of the best examples for writers who want emotional nuance without breaking the villanelle pattern completely.

Example of a modern, conversational refrain

For a third model in our examples of exploring villanelle refrains: 3 examples, let’s look at a more contemporary, conversational style. Many twenty-first-century poets use villanelles to sound like actual people talking, rather than lofty, formal voices.

Imagine a modern villanelle built around texting and ghosting:

• Refrain 1: “You saw my message; I can see you read.”
• Refrain 2: “I talk to bubbles where your words should be.”

Each stanza could add new layers:

• A stanza about overanalyzing the “typing” indicator.
• A stanza about scrolling back through old screenshots.
• A stanza about wondering if the silence is anger, indifference, or something else.

By the end, those same two lines—“You saw my message; I can see you read” and “I talk to bubbles where your words should be”—move from petty irritation to genuine heartbreak.

This style shows that refrains don’t need to sound archaic or grand. They can sound like someone you know, texting from the bus.

If you’re looking for real examples of contemporary villanelles, organizations like the Poetry Foundation and the Academy of American Poets regularly publish modern takes on traditional forms:

• Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org
• Academy of American Poets: https://poets.org

Browsing their archives is a great way to find more living, breathing examples of how writers today are exploring villanelle refrains.

More real examples of villanelle refrains in action

Beyond the big three models we’ve just walked through, it helps to study a wider set of real examples. Here are several more patterns you’ll see again and again when people talk about the best examples of villanelle refrains.

The argument-building refrain

Some villanelles use their refrains like points in a debate. Each repetition adds evidence, until the final stanza feels like a closing statement.

Imagine a climate-themed villanelle:

• Refrain 1: “We say it’s later, but the heat says now.”
• Refrain 2: “The ocean keeps the promises we break.”

Each stanza could:

• Mention a different climate event (wildfires, floods, heat waves).
• Contrast human denial with the planet’s very real response.

By the end, these refrains don’t just repeat—they sound like a verdict the speaker can’t escape.

If you’re writing about social or political issues, this argumentative pattern is one of the best examples to study.

The memory-loop refrain

Another popular approach is to let the refrains mimic the way memory circles back on itself.

For example, in a grief-focused villanelle:

• Refrain 1: “I keep forgetting that you’re really gone.”
• Refrain 2: “The morning makes the same mistake as me.”

Each stanza might show a different moment of forgetting:

• Setting an extra plate at the table.
• Reaching for your phone to send a text.
• Hearing a song and turning to share it.

Here, the refrains echo the actual experience of grief: the mind revisiting the same realization over and over. This pattern is a strong example of how form and subject can reinforce each other.

The ironic or self-contradicting refrain

Some of the most interesting villanelle refrains undercut themselves. The speaker keeps repeating a line they want to believe, while the stanzas show the opposite.

Consider a breakup villanelle:

• Refrain 1: “I’m better off; I barely think of you.”
• Refrain 2: “It’s just this one song—then I’ll be okay.”

Every stanza proves this wrong:

• They’re checking the ex’s social media.
• They’re rewriting old conversations in their head.
• They’re timing their walks to avoid certain streets.

By the last stanza, those refrains feel painfully ironic. This is one of the best examples of using repetition as a kind of self-exposure: the more the speaker repeats the line, the less believable it becomes.

The time-lapse refrain

You can also use refrains to jump through time while repeating the same key lines.

Picture a villanelle tracking a relationship over decades:

• Refrain 1: “We said forever on that borrowed couch.”
• Refrain 2: “The rent was late, but we were never scared.”

Stanzas could jump from:

• Early twenties in a tiny apartment.
• Middle age with kids and mortgages.
• Retirement, looking back at what “forever” really meant.

As time moves, the refrains stay the same, creating a bittersweet contrast between the fixed language of youth and the reality of aging.

How to write your own villanelle using these examples

Studying the best examples is helpful, but at some point you have to sit down and wrestle with your own lines. Here’s a simple, step-by-step way to use these examples of exploring villanelle refrains: 3 examples as a launchpad.

Step 1: Draft two lines that can carry weight

Before you worry about rhyme or meter, write two lines that:

• Could be spoken in different moods.
• Don’t rely on super specific details that will box you in.
• Have a strong image or emotional hook.

For instance:

• “The door stays open, though you never come.”
• “I water plants that never bloom for me.”

You can always polish the wording later. Right now, you’re looking for lines that feel like they could mean more than one thing.

Step 2: Test how your lines might shift

Ask yourself:

• How would this line sound if the speaker were angry?
• How would it sound if they were resigned?
• How would it sound if they were hopeful?

If you can imagine at least three different emotional readings, you’re in good shape. This is the same logic behind the strongest real examples we looked at earlier.

Step 3: Decide your refrain style

Look back at the examples of exploring villanelle refrains: 3 examples above and pick a strategy:

• Fixed refrains that change through context (like Thomas).
• Slightly bending refrains that show strain (like Bishop).
• Conversational refrains that sound like everyday speech.
• Argument-building, memory-loop, ironic, or time-lapse patterns.

Choosing one of these styles gives you a clear path forward instead of staring at a blank page.

Step 4: Outline your six stanzas

You don’t have to draft the whole poem at once. Try outlining the function of each stanza:

• Stanza 1: Introduce the situation.
• Stanza 2–4: Add tension, conflict, or new angles.
• Stanza 5: Let something break or shift.
• Final stanza: Bring the two refrains together in a way that feels earned.

This mirrors what you’ll see if you read several villanelle examples in a row from poets featured on sites like Poetry Foundation or Poets.org.

Step 5: Write badly first, revise later

Villanelles almost never come out clean on the first try. The rhyme scheme, the refrains, the line lengths—it’s a lot to juggle.

Give yourself permission to:

• Use placeholder rhymes.
• Repeat more than you want, then trim.
• Change a refrain slightly and decide later whether to keep the variation.

Many creative writing programs, including those at universities like Harvard, encourage drafting in loose form first and tightening later. That advice fits villanelles perfectly.

FAQ: Villanelle refrains and real examples

What are some good examples of villanelle refrains to study?

Strong examples include Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night” and Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art.” Both are widely discussed in classrooms and workshops, and you can usually find them through the Poetry Foundation or similar archives. Contemporary journals and organizations like Poets.org also feature newer villanelles that show how refrains can sound modern, informal, and emotionally complex.

Can I change my refrain, or does it have to stay exactly the same?

Traditionally, refrains stay very close to their original wording, but many respected poets allow small shifts—changing punctuation, adding a word, or slightly rephrasing. As you saw in the examples of exploring villanelle refrains: 3 examples above, even tiny changes can signal emotional strain or growth. The key is that the reader can still recognize the line when it comes back.

What is an example of a beginner-friendly villanelle strategy?

One beginner-friendly example of a strategy is to keep your refrains textually fixed and let the stanzas around them do the heavy lifting. This follows the model of Thomas’s poem: the lines repeat almost exactly, but each stanza adds a new situation or image that reshapes how we hear those words. It’s simpler to manage than constantly tweaking the refrain itself.

How many times should a refrain appear in a villanelle?

In a traditional villanelle, each of the two refrains appears four times: once in the opening tercet, twice more at the ends of middle stanzas, and then both together in the final stanza. When you look at real examples, you’ll see this pattern repeated over and over, even in modern poems that experiment with tone or subject matter.

Where can I find more real examples of villanelles online?

For reliable, well-curated examples, start with:

• Poetry Foundation – searchable database of poems and articles about form.
• Poets.org – the Academy of American Poets, with many contemporary examples.
• Harvard Writing Center – resources on reading and writing poetry, often used in college-level courses.

Reading widely is the best way to internalize how refrains can work in practice, beyond just the examples of exploring villanelle refrains: 3 examples covered here.

If you take nothing else from this guide, take this: your refrains don’t have to feel like a trap. They can be the heartbeat of the poem. Study these examples, experiment with your own two lines, and let repetition become a tool—not a prison—for the story you want to tell.