What is "villanelle"

Villanella \Vil`la*nel"la\, n.; pl. Villanelle. [It., a pretty country girl.] (Mus.) An old rustic dance, accompanied with singing.

Villanelle \Vil`la*nelle"\, n. [F.] A poem written in tercets with but two rhymes, the first and third verse of the first stanza alternating as the third verse in each successive stanza and forming a couplet at the close.
--E. W. Gosse.

poetic form (or a poem in this form) of five 3-lined stanzas and a final quatrain, with only two rhymes throughout, usually of pastoral or lyric nature, 1580s, from French villanelle, from Italian villanella "ballad, rural song," from fem. of villanello "rustic," from Medieval Latin villanus (see villain).

n. (context poetry English) a type of poetry, consisting of five tercets and one quatrain, with only two rhymes.

A villanelle (also known as villanesque) is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repeated alternately until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines. The villanelle is an example of a fixed verse form. The word derives from Latin, then Italian, and is related to the initial subject of the form being the pastoral.

The form started as a simple ballad-like song with no fixed form; this fixed quality would only come much later, from the poem "Villanelle (J'ay perdu ma Tourterelle)" (1606) by Jean Passerat. From this point, its evolution into the "fixed form" used in the present day is debated. Despite its French origins, the majority of villanelles have been written in English, a trend which began in the late nineteenth century. The villanelle has been noted as a form that frequently treats the subject of obsessions, and one which appeals to outsiders; its defining feature of repetition prevents it from having a conventional tone.