John Hollander's poem, “By the Sound,” emulates the description Strand and Boland established for classifying a villanelle poem. In addition to following the strict structural guidelines of villanelles, the content of “By the Sound” also follows the standard of villanelles. Strand and Boland explain: “…the form refuses to tell a story. It circles around, refusing to move forward in any kind of linear development” (8). When “By the Sound” is examined against a story, the linear development of the poem does not go beyond the setting. …” The poem begins: “Dawn slowly unrolled what night unrolled” (Hollander 1). The reader learns that the time of the poem's story is dawn. The last line of the first stanza gives rise: “That was when I lived by sound” (3). It establishes time and place in the first stanza, but like the circular motion of a villanelle, each stanza never goes beyond the time of morning at the sound but only conveys something more about the “dawn.” The first stanza comments on the sound of dawn with “…the seagulls screeched violently…” (2). The second stanza explains the ref...