Villanillanelles

"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas keeps the villanelle in its truest form.  While "The Waking" by Theodore Roethke and "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop both follow the basic outline of a villanelle, they do not have exact rhyme to keep with the "aba" rhyme scheme;  they both use slant rhyme in many cases.  These two poems also alter the lines that are meant to be repeated.

From Roethke's poem

Based on form and form alone, Thomas' poem makes the best use of the villanelle.  Without altering the format, Thomas creates a clear and logical elegy about his father's death.  The lyrical, cyclical repetition follows the speaker's emotions and outlook on the situation smoothly.  There is no need to change the format of the villanelle to narrate such a story.

That said, the other villanelles have more modern, more thought-like feels about them.  Roethke's poem uses slant rhyme to include deeper thoughts than the strict form would allow.  Bishop's alterations to the form to create a more relatable poem for readers;  it encompasses very realistic examples of things people lose, and the alterations to the form show how even something so intangible as a form of poetry can be consumed by the art of losing things.  Very poetic there, Bishop.