News

Harvard Grad Union Agrees To Bargain Without Ground Rules

News

Harvard Chabad Petitions to Change City Zoning Laws

News

Kestenbaum Files Opposition to Harvard’s Request for Documents

News

Harvard Agrees to a 1-Year $6 Million PILOT Agreement With the City of Cambridge

News

HUA Election Will Feature No Referenda or Survey Questions

VILLAINY

The Mail

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

***

To the forms an infidel,

I ask the Crimson cockerel:

what the hell is a villanelle?

Sokolov rings the tocsin bell

from the Bloody Citadel;

I, to the forms an infidel,

might write the kinds of doggerel

called rondel, virelai, noel:

but what the hell is a villanelle?

I confess I am unprosodical,

undiacritical, cannot spell,

am to the forms an infidel;

I admit my sins poetical,

metrical, archaeological;

but what the hell is a villanelle?

This latest thundered encyclical

says I did wrong, but does not tell--

What the hell! Can my own villanelle

be to the forms an infidel?

By the use of a single rime, I hope to avoid the further wrath of my literary superiors. If this course of action meets with Mr. Sokolov's approval, might I respectfully suggest as well that villanelles were written long before that of Jean Passerat in 1006, from which the present form is derived, and that the art of poetry is a trifle more capacious than his rules? Richard Sommer   Teaching Fellow in English

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags