And though he has an enormous collection of selves, in the first stanza he cannot find a single one of himself. The language of the first stanza could also be used to describe, for example, a pair of reading glasses that are "lost" on the forehead of the befuddled man looking for them. Moving from four lines in the first stanza to ten in the last, the poem gains momentum as it progresses. It is as though each stanza reminds the narrator of another infuriating aspect of his character, another instance of his selves slighting himself, and he cannot help but to continue with further examples. These are the traits and habits of old people.

Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle" is perhaps the most famous English language villanelle. The choice of villanelle as a form is doubly ironic. Traditionally, the villanelle was for light verse but Thomas uses it...
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