‘Road Trip’: A Villanelle by Evan Mantyk The Society February 12, 2022 Beauty, Poetry, Villanelle 26 Comments . Road Trip I ride the countryside for you my friend. The white and yellow lines can’t separate The dots I will connect at this trip’s end. With spinning force that pushes on the bend Until the highway comes out smooth and straight, I ride the countryside for you my friend. Before I get there I can’t comprehend Just how our meeting will illuminate The dots I will connect at this trip’s end. Although vast swaths of nameless land may rend Our lives in two, each one a foreign state, I ride the countryside for you my friend. Once eyes can meet our purposes will blend And different as we are we may relate The dots I will connect at this trip’s end. A flying needle sent with speed to mend Through unseen spaces overlapped by fate, I ride the countryside for you my friend— The dots I will connect at this trip’s end. . . Evan Mantyk teaches literature and history in New York and is President of the Society of Classical Poets. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. CODEC Stories:Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) 26 Responses Paul W Erlandson February 12, 2022 This is really nicely done, Evan. It really works for me. Probably, I listen to too much pop music, but your poem reminded me of some lines from a Neil Young song (Good to See You): I’ve been down the endless highway I’ve passed on the solid line Now at last I’m home to you I feel like making up for lost time Reply Evan Mantyk February 19, 2022 Thank you, Paul! I was going for a more musical feeling with this one. I was not aware of this song. Reply jd February 12, 2022 I enjoyed your Villanelle too, Evan. I would love a “road trip” somewhere distant so the title drew me right in. I hope the trip was as successful as the poem. Reply Evan Mantyk February 19, 2022 The trip was a mixed bag. Most importantly, I composed this while driving and it kept me sharp and awake duing the long hours on the road. Reply Brian Yapko February 12, 2022 I’m really impressed, Evan, at how the repeating lines acquire depth as the villanelle proceeds to its destination. You go with great economy from the geography of the trip through the intellectual implications of the meeting to a sense of schism to the spiritual hope for potential reconciliation. It’s really quite beautiful. You once said that a good villanelle should impart the sense of having taken the reader on a journey. Now I understand. Yours gives a great sense of forward motion and emotional deepening. Reply Evan Mantyk February 19, 2022 Thank you, Brian! I haven’t written many villanelles, but among those this is certainly my best one I think. Reply Jeff Eardley February 12, 2022 Sublimely written and beautiful to read. This could be the perfect song on a dead straight highway, preferably with the wipers on, and sung by Johnny Cash, God bless him. Well done Evan, this is great. Reply Evan Mantyk February 19, 2022 Thank you, Jeff! Reply Paul Freeman February 12, 2022 Great Villanelle, Evan. Thanks for the read. Reply Evan Mantyk February 19, 2022 Thank you, Paul! Reply Joseph S. Salemi February 12, 2022 This is an excellent villanelle on a simple and straightforward subject. Indeed, since the villanelle as a medieval form takes its origin from song, it is best when its subject matter is clear and uncomplicated. The choice of the rhymes (–end and –ate) is also wise, for those two sounds provide a legion of possible words in English. Especially good is the line “A flying needle sent with speed to mend…” This is what one of my teachers called “a winking metaphor” that can refer to two possible things: in this case, the indication needle on the car’s speedometer, or the car itself speeding along the highway. Reply David Paul Behrens February 12, 2022 Very beautiful and thought provoking. Thank You. Reply Margaret Coats February 12, 2022 I read a third meaning in the “flying needle,” beyond the two Joseph Salemi has seen. The needle stands in apposition to “I,” and thus the driver/rider is the needle “sent with speed to mend” the two lives which have been rent by vast swaths of nameless land in the fourth stanza. In other words, the needle person speeds to his destination in order to perform sewing work that will mend the separation by which two lives have been torn. The planned pattern for his stitching is the “dots I will connect at this trip’s end.” Well thought out, Evan, and if this is a real journey, I hope the reconciliation is as well sewn and finished as the villanelle. Reply Joseph S. Salemi February 12, 2022 Yes, that seems plausible as well. The verb “mend” is the evidence for it, though the comparison isn’t carried forward by more sewing references. To strengthen it, the poet could change the next line to “The rips and slashes overlapped by fate.” Reply Evan Mantyk February 19, 2022 Thank Margaret and Joseph for your comments! Yes, the idea, among others, was a needle mending with the overlapping of fabric. Reply Margaret Coats March 2, 2022 I had meant to mention this earlier! Further support in the poem for the idea of sewing is the “lines” and “dots” possibly referring to a printed pattern for making clothes. Most paper patterns have a solid line (like the white ones on the sides of the road in the illustration) to indicate where to cut the fabric. A little inside these solid lines are dashed or dotted lines (like the yellow dashes in the illustration) showing where the needle should sew to form the seam, and leaving a small seam allowance where the two pieces of fabric overlap. I have usually used pattern brands with dashes as the sewing line, but I think I recall that the most expensive Vogue brand uses dots! Reply C.B. Anderson February 12, 2022 What I particularly enjoyed about this was how the connections between each successive line had to be examined closely. Close examination shows that the repetends take on slightly different meanings and present slightly different implications with each iteration. This is one of the techniques that keeps the form dynamic. There are few things worse than a static villanelle. Reply Evan Mantyk February 19, 2022 Thank you, Kip. I was in part inspired by your well wrought villanelles, which I have learned from. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant February 12, 2022 Evan, I love a good villanelle and the repetition in this fine poem is used to wonderful effect – the tediousness of a long journey, the thoughts along the way, the anticipation of how it will go, and what the future may bring. I really want those dots connected… the repeating lines of this villanelle scream out for ‘Road Trip 2 – Reflections’. I can’t wait! 😉 Reply Evan Mantyk February 19, 2022 Thank you, Susan! Reply Gail Naegele February 13, 2022 An excellent villanelle. Each tercet not only has its own imagery, but flows fluidly with connection to the next, and the last line “the dots” secure a powerful connection to the whole. Clever and intriguing read, one enjoyed reading over. G. Reply David Watt February 13, 2022 Evan, I think you have given us a great deal within the six stanzas of a villanelle. There is the journey itself, a sense of anticipation, an uncertainty of outcome, and the intended coming together of friends under a common purpose. The white and yellow lines of the highway pair up perfectly with the aim of connecting dots upon reaching your destination. Reply Roy E. Peterson February 14, 2022 Besides the beauty of your Villanelle, I personally identified with your road trip that perfectly portrayed one I made in my senior years to pick up someone I knew in high school fifty years ago and married late in life. My trip was from Arizona to Houston and back. In a sense, the one I met was the “flying needle” that did the mending of my heart. Reply James Sale February 14, 2022 Fab villanelle Evan – love it! Reply Tamara Beryl Latham March 10, 2022 Evan, this is a wonderfully penned villanelle with each of the five tercets offering a unique set of images (lines, speed, dots, friend/lover, meeting of the eyes, etc.) that significantly contribute to the “trip’s end” in the final quatrain. What about “just how” or “the way” or something similar for L8 to keep it within the parameters of decasyllabic verse? A great read, especially considering the villanelle is such a very difficult form to master. I loved it. 🙂 Reply Evan Mantyk March 30, 2022 Thank you, Tamara! Fixed. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Captcha loading...In order to pass the CAPTCHA please enable JavaScript. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. 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Paul W Erlandson February 12, 2022 This is really nicely done, Evan. It really works for me. Probably, I listen to too much pop music, but your poem reminded me of some lines from a Neil Young song (Good to See You): I’ve been down the endless highway I’ve passed on the solid line Now at last I’m home to you I feel like making up for lost time Reply
Evan Mantyk February 19, 2022 Thank you, Paul! I was going for a more musical feeling with this one. I was not aware of this song. Reply
jd February 12, 2022 I enjoyed your Villanelle too, Evan. I would love a “road trip” somewhere distant so the title drew me right in. I hope the trip was as successful as the poem. Reply
Evan Mantyk February 19, 2022 The trip was a mixed bag. Most importantly, I composed this while driving and it kept me sharp and awake duing the long hours on the road. Reply
Brian Yapko February 12, 2022 I’m really impressed, Evan, at how the repeating lines acquire depth as the villanelle proceeds to its destination. You go with great economy from the geography of the trip through the intellectual implications of the meeting to a sense of schism to the spiritual hope for potential reconciliation. It’s really quite beautiful. You once said that a good villanelle should impart the sense of having taken the reader on a journey. Now I understand. Yours gives a great sense of forward motion and emotional deepening. Reply
Evan Mantyk February 19, 2022 Thank you, Brian! I haven’t written many villanelles, but among those this is certainly my best one I think. Reply
Jeff Eardley February 12, 2022 Sublimely written and beautiful to read. This could be the perfect song on a dead straight highway, preferably with the wipers on, and sung by Johnny Cash, God bless him. Well done Evan, this is great. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi February 12, 2022 This is an excellent villanelle on a simple and straightforward subject. Indeed, since the villanelle as a medieval form takes its origin from song, it is best when its subject matter is clear and uncomplicated. The choice of the rhymes (–end and –ate) is also wise, for those two sounds provide a legion of possible words in English. Especially good is the line “A flying needle sent with speed to mend…” This is what one of my teachers called “a winking metaphor” that can refer to two possible things: in this case, the indication needle on the car’s speedometer, or the car itself speeding along the highway. Reply
Margaret Coats February 12, 2022 I read a third meaning in the “flying needle,” beyond the two Joseph Salemi has seen. The needle stands in apposition to “I,” and thus the driver/rider is the needle “sent with speed to mend” the two lives which have been rent by vast swaths of nameless land in the fourth stanza. In other words, the needle person speeds to his destination in order to perform sewing work that will mend the separation by which two lives have been torn. The planned pattern for his stitching is the “dots I will connect at this trip’s end.” Well thought out, Evan, and if this is a real journey, I hope the reconciliation is as well sewn and finished as the villanelle. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi February 12, 2022 Yes, that seems plausible as well. The verb “mend” is the evidence for it, though the comparison isn’t carried forward by more sewing references. To strengthen it, the poet could change the next line to “The rips and slashes overlapped by fate.” Reply
Evan Mantyk February 19, 2022 Thank Margaret and Joseph for your comments! Yes, the idea, among others, was a needle mending with the overlapping of fabric. Reply
Margaret Coats March 2, 2022 I had meant to mention this earlier! Further support in the poem for the idea of sewing is the “lines” and “dots” possibly referring to a printed pattern for making clothes. Most paper patterns have a solid line (like the white ones on the sides of the road in the illustration) to indicate where to cut the fabric. A little inside these solid lines are dashed or dotted lines (like the yellow dashes in the illustration) showing where the needle should sew to form the seam, and leaving a small seam allowance where the two pieces of fabric overlap. I have usually used pattern brands with dashes as the sewing line, but I think I recall that the most expensive Vogue brand uses dots! Reply
C.B. Anderson February 12, 2022 What I particularly enjoyed about this was how the connections between each successive line had to be examined closely. Close examination shows that the repetends take on slightly different meanings and present slightly different implications with each iteration. This is one of the techniques that keeps the form dynamic. There are few things worse than a static villanelle. Reply
Evan Mantyk February 19, 2022 Thank you, Kip. I was in part inspired by your well wrought villanelles, which I have learned from. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant February 12, 2022 Evan, I love a good villanelle and the repetition in this fine poem is used to wonderful effect – the tediousness of a long journey, the thoughts along the way, the anticipation of how it will go, and what the future may bring. I really want those dots connected… the repeating lines of this villanelle scream out for ‘Road Trip 2 – Reflections’. I can’t wait! 😉 Reply
Gail Naegele February 13, 2022 An excellent villanelle. Each tercet not only has its own imagery, but flows fluidly with connection to the next, and the last line “the dots” secure a powerful connection to the whole. Clever and intriguing read, one enjoyed reading over. G. Reply
David Watt February 13, 2022 Evan, I think you have given us a great deal within the six stanzas of a villanelle. There is the journey itself, a sense of anticipation, an uncertainty of outcome, and the intended coming together of friends under a common purpose. The white and yellow lines of the highway pair up perfectly with the aim of connecting dots upon reaching your destination. Reply
Roy E. Peterson February 14, 2022 Besides the beauty of your Villanelle, I personally identified with your road trip that perfectly portrayed one I made in my senior years to pick up someone I knew in high school fifty years ago and married late in life. My trip was from Arizona to Houston and back. In a sense, the one I met was the “flying needle” that did the mending of my heart. Reply
Tamara Beryl Latham March 10, 2022 Evan, this is a wonderfully penned villanelle with each of the five tercets offering a unique set of images (lines, speed, dots, friend/lover, meeting of the eyes, etc.) that significantly contribute to the “trip’s end” in the final quatrain. What about “just how” or “the way” or something similar for L8 to keep it within the parameters of decasyllabic verse? A great read, especially considering the villanelle is such a very difficult form to master. I loved it. 🙂 Reply
