Sunday, December 2, 2007

Country Music as Modern Ironic Villanelle

Here is Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art" as an example of a villanelle:

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.


Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.


A villanelle has five stanzas of three lines each and a final stanza of four lines. The first line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the 2nd and 4th stanzas. The third line of the first stanza is repeated as the las line of the 3rd and 5th stanzas. These refrains follow each other to become the last two lines of the poem. Note the repetition of the line, "the art of losing isn't hard to master" and yet note that this has been questioned and been problematized and been made ironic by the end of the poem. Clearly, it is hard to master. In the same way, country music often repeats one line as a refrain, but has the meaning change throughout the course of the song, often undermining the line by the end of the poem.

Now, the lyrics to "Stay" by Sugarland:




I been sittin’ here starin’
At the clock on the wall
And I been layin’ here prayin’
Prayin’ she won’t call
It’s just another call from home
And you’ll get it and be gone
And I’ll be cryin’
And I’ll be beggin’ you, baby
Beg you not to leave

But I’ll be left here waitin’
With my heart on my sleeve
Oh, for the next time we’ll be here
Seems like a million years
And I think I’m dyin’
What do I have to do to make you see
She can’t love you like me
Why don’t you stay

I’m down on my knees
I’m so tired of bein’ lonely
Don’t I give you what you need
When she calls you to go
There is one thing you should know
We don’t have to live this way
Baby, why don’t you stay

You keep tellin’ me, baby
There will come a time
When you will leave her arms
And forever be in mine
But I don’t think that’s the truth
And I don’t like bein’ used
And I’m tired ‘a waitin’
It’s too much pain to have to bear
To love a man you have to share
Why don’t you stay

I’m down on my knees
I’m so tired of bein’ lonely
Don’t I give you what you need
When she calls you to go
There is one thing you should know
We don’t have to live this way
Baby, why don’t you stay

I can’t take it any longer
But my will is gettin’ stronger
And I think I know just what I have to do
I can’t waste another minute
After all that I put in it
I’ve given you my best
Why does she get the best of you
So next time you’ll find
You wanna leave her bed for mine
Why don’t you stay

I’m up off my knees
I’m so tired of bein’ lonely
You can’t give me what I need
When she begs you not to go
There is one thing you should know
I don’t have to live this way
Baby, why don’t you stay

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