Villanelle: Whenever Life stamps me down under heels
Whenever Life stamps me down under heels
I think of those who died living deaths young
So say i who am i to bleat meek squeals
Ages gone by how many mute appeals
Fell on deaf bigot ears great lives un-sung
Whenever Life stamps me down under heels
Who dared shift Earth from centre to out-fields
How Galileo ate humble pie dung
So say i who am i to bleat meek squeals
Nuanced scales stringed by chords neuronic peals
Had Mozart in debt into common grave flung
Whenever Life stamps me down under heels
Van Gogh Cervantes Dostoyevski shields
Me from vainly emptying my spent lung
So say i who am i to bleat meek squeals
If my words can’t Gorki's lives serve dire meals
Then would not mine and your pen seem low-strung
Whenever Life stamps me down under heels
So say i who am i to bleat meek squeals
© T. Wignesan - Paris, 2017
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.