What is suggested by the final line? What will be an ideal ...

[jazziefee]

What is suggested by the final line?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Compare this poem to other villanelles in this book, such as DylanThomass Do not go gentle into that good night and Wendy Copes Lonely Hearts. In what ways does Bishop bend the rules of the form?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[jaygar71]

Answer to Question 1

• The speaker goes from singing America in the opening linecelebrating in a hopeful spirit its capacity to correct course and truly embody the principles on which it is foundedto stating forthrightly in the final line that he too is part of America, as much so as anyone else, and as entitled as anyone else to claim his share of its promises.

Answer to Question 2

• The Thomas and Cope poems strictly follow the form of the villanellethe first line repeated exactly in lines 6, 12, and 18; the third in lines 9, 15, and 19; the two refrain lines riming with one another and with the first line of each succeeding stanza; the middle lines of each stanza riming with one another. Bishop varies the pattern in relatively small ways by using off-rimes in lines 4 and (especially) 16, and by slightly varying the phrasing of the first refrain in line 18. By far her most significant departure from the rules is the abandonment of the second refrain, retaining only the repetition of the rime word disaster at the end of each of the relevant lines. This procedure allows for greater flexibility and naturalness of expression, and makes possible the thematic progression described in the answer to Question 2, above.