Video Blues

“Saturday Afternoon Blues” by Wanda Coleman (1983)

Published 16 years before “Video Blues,” this poem exemplifies the musical qualities of a blues poem that is not reined in by the villanelle’s formal constraints. Though the dark tone contrasts with Mary Jo Salter’s poem, both poems are thematically similar in their examination of a troubled marriage and emotionally isolated speakers.

“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop (1979)

Written by Salter’s teacher and mentor at Harvard, “One Art” is a villanelle that explores loss. This poem is a good example of a villanelle that is less strict in its approach to repetition, as there is more variation in the repeated lines.

“Ode to Patrick Swayze” by Tishani Doshi (2017)

This poem similarly examines an obsessive crush on a movie star. Though it takes a different free-verse approach, Doshi’s speaker arrives at similar conclusions about the complications of media consumption and the formation of crushes that impact real-world relationships.