Go Boldly: A Villanelle

Go boldly into darkest night, indeed;
there are no rules etched deep in wood nor stone.
Get off your high horse, mount a nobler steed,

 
spread wisdom wisely—much like fruitful seed.
Be proud of sage sagacity you've sown.
Go boldly into darkest night, indeed.

 
Forgo frail egos, tether tight the need
to walk throughout your life while all alone.
Get off your high horse, mount a nobler steed.

 
Refrain from foolish folly rife with greed,
refulgent in the love and light you've shown.
Go boldly into darkest night, indeed.

 
For God and country, always dare to bleed;
to vanquish evil, seek help from His throne.
Get off your high horse, mount a nobler steed,

 
stand steadfast–hold true–don’t deny your creed;
succumbing would  forsake how far you’ve grown.
Charge boldly into darkest night, indeed;
get off your high horse, mount a nobler steed.

The highly structured villanelle is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrains serve as the poem's two concluding lines. The refrains may be slightly altered, if the poet so chooses. Mine are slightly altered.
Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as follows:

A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.

Strange as it may seem for a poem with such a rigid rhyme scheme, the villanelle did not start off as a fixed form. During the Renaissance, the villanella and villancico (from the Italian villano, or peasant) were Italian and Spanish dance-songs. French poets who called their poems "villanelle" did not follow any specific schemes, rhymes, or refrains. Rather, the title implied that, like the Italian and Spanish dance-songs, their poems spoke of simple, often pastoral or rustic themes.

As always, thank you very much for reading.