Interpretations:Hate The Villanelle

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Don't Hate Hate the Villanelle

Exactly what it says on the tin, a song about the difficulty of writing within a structured format. A villanelle is a particularly quirky form of poetry, 19 lines long with a weird rhyme-refrain scheme which...well, is tricky (see the other wiki for details). The narrator of the song longs to write without rules or structure (Joking in class, oh, the words I misspell/ Mumbles and stammers, but are those real crimes?), but alas, these verses are his prison cell. Jkfecke (talk) 01:20, 1 May 2015 (EDT)

The irony is, of course, that the song itself is a perfect villanelle.

Writing Teacher

At first, not knowing what the Villanelle structure is, I interpreted this differently. I thought that villanelle was a TMBG feminization of villain, and I thought that this was a song about the narrator in Elementary school, specifically a writing class. Since Elementary teachers are stereotypically female I interpreted the villanelle to be his teacher, so the song is saying not to blame him for his bad writing, but to blame his teacher for not teaching him properly.

I too misunderstood the lyric. I thought maybe a villanelle was some kind of bell-ringing apparatus, like a carillon. Now I know the truth, I find the song a bit less annoying! -- Thread Bomb (talk) 04:52, 25 February 2020 (EST)

Don't Hate the Speaker, hate the Box they're in

Nowadays, I don't trust Flansy to be forthright with his words. ;) So I'm thinking that "hating a form of poetry" is a good joke to make, because it's a forced format of language. However, I think the song is talking about how frustrating it is convey ideas in the limits of conversation or language. "These verses are my prison cell"-- Verses of a Villanelle imprison the intended concept of this song as well.

A society's forced particularity is plaguing this singer. I am grateful that the TMBW page says that Villain is just another term for an ignorant person/bumpkin. The singer makes spelling mistakes and doesn't speak up --"but are those real crimes?" -- at school, yes.

I might be wrong, though, but I think Linell's sound plays this true pathos. This person is stuck in hell--trying to find the right words, but all words spill into other concepts. This person might be stuck behind a history of trying to solve the quicksand, instead of escape it. The quicksand of presuming it's necessary to hyper-observe societal rituals... like a poetry format. PS: Really loving Glean

--SoreThumb (talk) 14:33, 27 May 2015 (EDT)

Past Poor Poetry Predicts Present Predicament

There are several metaphors here, not least of which is comparing writing an irritating style of poetry to being confined to a jail cell. I'd like to think that the narrator is currently in prison, due to an unfortunate set of circumstances he was unable to think his way out of...all stemming from a subpar villanelle poem he turned in to his teacher many years ago, riddled with misspelled words. Are those real crimes? Don't hate the villain - hate the villanelle that put him where he is today. --MisterMe (talk) 13:35, 31 December 2015 (EST)

Interpretation 5

I agree with the fact that the villanelle is a writing/English teacher. The speaker is trying his best in his English class, but his English teacher is still giving him poor grades for is writing assignments. His parents also dislikes his grades and makes him look like the villain. The speaker is communicating through this song as a poem to their parents what is going in the class and why they earn poor grades. Hence the first line, "Don't hate the villain". He also writes about his friends also getting poor grades, him joking around in class ("Joking in class.." and her getting on to him ("...but are those real crimes?", how he wishes someone could know his pain ("If someone could hear..."), and how he wants to give up on writing ("My hand disappears as I wave farewell").--Nanobot18 (talk) 14:51, 3 January 2019 (EST)