Position:Home>Poetry> What is a Sestina? [see details]?

The sestina has always been considered a difficult form of poetry to master!. It's Inventor Arnaut Daniel a mathematician and a poet belonged to a group of twelfth century French poets called the troubadours!. They labelled their styles according to the difficulty and the Sestina was one of the trobar clus, the forms of the master troubadour!. Later it was adopted by Francesco Petrarca who wrote a series of Sestinas which he called Canzone!.

The Sestina is made up of seven stanzas!. The first six stanzas have six lines each ending word falling in a precise mathematical progression, the seventh stanza has only three lines which are a mathematical reflection of the first stanza!. This gives a total of (39 lines)!.

The first stanza is the defining stanza, and the six words that are used to end each line A!.B!.C!.D!.E!.F!. are the defining words!. They are repeated in each of the following five stanzas of the poem in a strict pattern laid out thus:

Stanza 1!.!.A!.B!.C!.D!.E!.F!.
Stanza 2!.!.F!.A!.E!.B!.D!.C!.
Stanza 3!.!.C!.F!.D!.A!.B!.E!.
Stanza 4!.!.E!.C!.B!.F!.A!.D!.
Stanza 5!.!.D!.E!.A!.C!.F!.B!.
Stanza 6!.!.B!.D!.F!.E!.C!.A!.

The final stanza (envoy) still uses the same six words, but uses only three lines with the even nubered words descending internally and the odd numbered words rising on the outside giving a pattern of:

Line 1!.!.B!.!.A
Line 2!.!.D!.!.C
Line 3!.!.F!.!.E

Perhaps it will be a little clearer when we look at the example below!.

September rain falls on the house!.
In the failing light, the old grandmother
Sits in the kitchen with the child
Beside the Little Marvel Stove,
Reading the jokes from the almanac,
Laughing and talking to hide her tears!.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears
And the rain that beats on the roof of the house
Were both foretold by the almanac,
But only known to a grandmother!.
The iron kettle sings on the stove!.
She cuts some bread and says to the child,

It's time for tea now; but the child
Is watching the teakettle's small hard tears
Dance like mad on the hot black stove,
The way the rain must dance on the house!.
Tidying up, the old grandmother
Hangs up the clever almanac

On its string!. Birdlike, the almanac
Hovers half open above the child,
Hovers above the old grandmother
And her teacup full of dark brown tears!.
She shivers and says she thinks the house
Feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove!.

It was to be, says the Marvel Stove!.
I know what I know, says the almanac!.
With crayons the child draws a rigid house
And a winding pathway!. Then the child
Puts in a man with buttons like tears
And shows it proudly to the grandmother!.

But secretly, while the grandmother
Busies herself about the stove,
The little moons fall down like tears
From between the pages of the almanac
Into the flower bed the child
Has carefully placed in the front of the house!.

Time to plant tears, says the almanac!.
The grandmother sings to the marvellous stove
And the child draws another inscrutable house!.




Elizabeth BishopWww@QuestionHome@Com

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It seems that it is a form of a peom, consisting of six, six line stanzas!.
The origins of a sestins go back to the Provencal Troubadors!.
According to the Britanica:
The final words of the first stanza appear in varied order in the other five, the order used by the Proven?als being: abcdef, faebdc, cfdabe, ecbfad, deacfb, bdfeca!. Following these was a stanza of three lines, in which the six key words were repeated in the middle and at the end of the lines, summarizing the poem or dedicating it to some person!.
I have given a couple of links at the bottom for further info if you want!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Sestina means a poem of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy, originally without rhyme, in which each stanza repeats the end words of the lines of the first stanza, but in different order, the envoy using the six words again, three in the middle of the lines and three at the end!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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