The poem is written as a villanelle, a form that dates back to the Renaissance (a French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas. These two refrain lines form the final couplet in the quatrain). Why might Alexie choose that old, confined and thoroughly European form to work with here? base on the poem sister fire brother smoke

The poem is written as a villanelle, a form that dates back to the Renaissance (a French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas. These two refrain lines form the final couplet in the quatrain). Why might Alexie choose that old, confined and thoroughly European form to work with here? base on the poem sister fire brother smoke