Most people, who don't delve into the different aspects of poetry, have no idea about any of the different sequences and types of poetry that someone can write. Many of these people make a rhyming story and call it a day, but let's snap up those poetic skills! Everyone knows about the haiku and the limerick, but one should really challenge their poetic skills by learning about the sestina and how to write one. It's time for you to enhance your poetic skills and call yourself a poet.
The sestina form is a fancy type of poetry that is often hard to master (as I have been writing a sestina for the last month and have yet to finish it). What it is exactly is a 39 line poem with six stanzas and a tercet (a three line stanza). The words at the end of each line in the first stanza are repeated at the end of each line in all of the following stanzas, but in a different order. All orders are based off of the first stanza.
Here is an order chart to explain. Each line in the chart is one stanza:
Stanza 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Stanza 2: 6 1 5 2 4 3
Stanza 3: 3 6 4 1 2 5
Stanza 4: 5 3 2 6 1 4
Stanza 5: 4 5 1 3 6 2
Stanza 6: 2 4 6 5 3 1
As you can see, the word at the end of line six, in stanza one, is the word at the end of line one, in stanza two.
After all of the stanzas are gone, you repeat all of the end words in a 3 line tercet, stanza, in any order, as long as there are 2 words per line.
That is the basic structure of a sestina poem. If you want to try and master this poetic form, I suggest writing down the end words and line number as a base. Try to include a variety of word types (pronouns, nouns, verbs). This will make it easier to pull off a poem.
Hopefully in the near future I will be able to finish my sestina and post it.
Here is an example of a sestina poem. Look at the end words of the first stanza compared to the other stanzas. Also look at the tercet at the end:
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Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop
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 marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.
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And that is the sestina. I hope that I have boggled all of your minds with some awesome poetic knowledge and skills.
Kudos!!