A/N: This was a villanelle I wrote for my poetry class last semester. Villanelles are a bit tricky, and I was kind of lost as to what to write about...and this came out.

The Banished Ones

The seas are wild and cloudy is the sky,

As gulls fly, wheeling wailful to and fro

And winds do coldly whisper, sadly sigh.

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The ships, they left with flowing sails so high

Those standing on the cliffs saw them below

The seas are wild and cloudy is the sky.

---

From far above the sea a falcon cry

Comes clear and piercing; on the warriors row

And winds do coldly whisper, sadly sigh.

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The men gaze back to shore where their homes lie

To wonder where, hereafter they will go.

The seas are wild and cloudy is the sky.

---

These banished men, their king sends them to die

For where they sail to, none can come but woe;

And winds do coldly whisper, sadly sigh.

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‘Farewell, our land, our home!’—now comes their cry

And out of sight they vanish with the flow.

The seas are wild and cloudy is the sky

And winds do coldly whisper, sadly sigh.