Poetry Thursday 4/26/07

I apologize. This is my first attempt at participating in PoetryThursday. If I'm lucky, I'll survive for next week's effort.

The Villanelle.

Just so you know--I honestly thought this "assignment" would kill me. But I'm still here to tell about it. At some point I felt so harassed by the form that I thought I had succeeded in making some sort of sense. But in the clear light of day I'm not so sure.

For starters, here's a germane quote from my dear fellow asthmatic Robert Louis Stevenson: "To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour." Thanks, Robert. That certainly applied.

Well, here goes!

Success: A Villanelle in an Archaic Style

There's little to be said for undue stress,
yet there's great flavor in a goodly gain.
They say nothing succeeds quite like success.

Conceit and vanity call for redress,
and tax falls heavy on a lord's demesne.
There's little to be said for undue stress.

To those with no compunction to oppress--
with limitless ambition to unrein--
They say nothing succeeds quite like success.

Great wrongs the great eventually confess,
but none's enough to drive them to abstain.
There's little to be said for undue stress.

A lack of motive leads to frugalness,
and parsimony pocketbooks constrains.
They say nothing succeeds quite like success.

Greedy or humble, why indulge excess?
In moderation, sacred or profane,
there's little to be said for undue stress.
They say nothing succeeds quite like success.