Question

In keeping with traditional villanelle structure, the last line of this poem should be:

A. who scorned the tick of the falling weather.
B. He counted the guns of god a bother
C. A scowl of sun struck down my mother
D. There is no fourth line.

Answer 1

A. who scorned the tick of the falling weather.

Step-by-step explanation:

A traditional villanelle is a poetic form that has five tercets and a quatrain that acts as the closing stanza. The tercets are a three-line stanza while a quatrain is a four-line stanza. Moreover, it follows a pattern where the first and last line of the first tercet acts as the third line in the following tercets, alternating between the two.

Simply put, the first line of the first stanza will become the third line in the second and fourth stanza. Similarly, the third line of the first stanza will become the third line of the third and fifth stanzas. and these two lines will become the closing lines of the quatrain.

So, in keeping with the traditional villanelle structure, the last line of the poem "Lament" by Sylvia Plath will be "who scorned the tick of the falling weather."