Structure of the Villanelle Poetry

Kadooment Day Villanelle

Jamming on kadooment day, from dawn to dusk, playing mask
Revellers from everywhere, including France

In brazen wear and tear, they bask

In the sun, sipping fermented juice from a bamboo flask

Tourists, jumping, whirling and twirling have come to prance

Jamming on kadooment day, from dawn to dusk, playing mask

Jamming on kadooment day, from dawn to dusk away from cane-trash

Chanting calypso songs, in native parlance

In brazen wear and tear, they bask

Sea of people on Spring Garden, round a cask
while vermin grind, sweet grass, with a weasel-mouth lance

Jamming on kadooment day, from dawn to dusk, playing mask

So Crop Over comes many months after Pasch

All through the day and night they sing and they dance

In brazen wear and tear, they bask

All year these wild cats, make camouflaging an easy task
in the cane fields to flex the Ministry of Finance

Jamming on kadooment day, from dawn to dusk, playing mask

In brazen wear and tear, they bask.

© Paterika Hengreaves

(July 2018 (Barbados)

Structure of the Villanelle Poetry

Jamming on kadooment day, from dawn to dusk, playing mask (A1)……
Revellers from everywhere, including France (B) ………………     Tercet stanza

In brazen wear and tear, they bask (A2)……………………………. 

In the sun, sipping fermented juice from a bamboo flask (A)……

Tourists, jumping, whirling and twirling have come to prance (B)....Tercet Stanza

Jamming on kadooment day, from dawn to dusk, playing mask (AI…….

Jamming on kadooment day, from dawn to dusk away from cane-trash (A)…

Chanting calypso songs, in native parlance (B)……………………. Tercet Stanza

In brazen wear and tear, they bask (A2)………………………….

Sea of people on Spring Garden, round a cask (A)…………………..
While vermin grind, sweet grass, with a weasel-mouth lance (B)…… Tercet Stanza

Jamming on kadooment day, from dawn to dusk, playing mask (A1)….

So Crop Over comes many months after Pasch (A)…………..

All through the day and night they sing and they dance (B)……. Tercet Stanza

In brazen wear and tear, they bask (A2)………………………

All year these wild cats, make camouflaging an easy task (A)…….
In the cane fields to flex the Ministry of Finance (B)………...……Quatrain Stanza

Jamming on kadooment day, from dawn to dusk, playing mask (A1)......

In brazen wear and tear, they bask. (A2)…………………….............

The "Kadooment Day" poem is written in the form of the English Villanelle. The Villanelle is of French origin. This poetic form uses repetition. The English equivalent of the French Villanelle is a fixed form poetry consisting of:

Nineteen verses of any length divided into -:

- 6 stanzas
- 5 tercet stanzas
- 1 concluding quatrain

Verses 1 and 3 of the initial Tercet rhyme. These rhymes are repeated in each subsequent Tercet (aba) and in the final two verses of the quatrain (abaa)

Verse 1 appears in its entirety as verses 6, 12 and 18

Verse 3 reappears as verses 9, 15 and 19.

Crop Over is a Bajan-Caribbean cane harvest festival in the West Indies. The festivities run for several weeks to celebrate the end of the sugar cane harvest.

Kadooment Day is the last day of Crop Over which commences on July 1 and ends on the August 1. It is a summer street festival with all the noise, colour and vibrancy you’d expect from a Caribbean festival. Folks get into the furrow with local drinks and cuisine; join the throng as bands and calypso musicians parade through the streets. Glittering costumes and plenty of “bare skin” are on show amidst a melee of revellers, stilt walkers, musicians and entertainers. Such fun and celebrations continue well into the wee hours of the morning so you’ll need plenty of stamina. Tourists world over are drawn to this festival annually.

“fermented juice from a bamboo flask” = rum in bottle
“sweet grass” = sugar cane