In 1606, Jean Passerat was credited with introducing the modern villanelle to the world with his poem, written in Old French, "J'ay perdu ma Tourterelle".
While the French popularized the villanelle, the English soon were writing their own villanelles by the late 19th Century. No longer focussing on pastoral subjects, obsessions tended to be a popular topic; for example, the aestheticism of the 1890's. James Joyce wrote a villanelle for his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". William Empson revived the poetic form in the 1930's. Likely the most common villanelle is Dylan's Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" (1951) at http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night:
Do not go gentle into that good night
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the song in flight,
And learn too late they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men near death who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
In 1976, Elizabeth Bishop composed "One Art", also a well received villanelle. The 1980's and 1990's saw the rise of New Formalism and more villanelles.
Here is my villanelle, The Wilhelm Gustloff Villanelle, written in 2008, based on the evacuation of thousands of East Prussians in early 1945:
On an icy night in '45
East Prussian refugees swarmed the ship
Desperately seeking to stay alive.
The boat filled quickly with soldiers' wives
And babes with knuckels between their lips
On an icy night in '45.
Fleeing the Russians' relentless drive
The ship steamed west at a rapid clip
Desperately seeking to stay alive.
Beneath the Baltic, the sub took dives
Aborting the steamer's fateful trip
On an icy night in '45.
Scrambling for lifeboats, many did strive
Thousands jumped as she started to tip
Desperately seeking to stay alive.
Under the corpses, the last to survive
Was a baby blue from winter's grip
On an icy night in '45
Desperately seeking to stay alive.
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