HubHip: Arts: Literature: Poetry: Forms: Fixed Verse Forms: Sestina (0)

DescriptionThe sestina is a medieval provencal poetic form attributed to the troubadour Arnaut Daniel. It consists of six six-line stanzas, ending with a three-line envoi.

The six words that end the lines of the first stanza are repeated as the end words of each of the other stanzas in a complex pattern that goes like this (note that each letter corresponds to an end word, not an end rhyme): abcdef, faebdc, cfdabe, ecbfad, deacfb, bdfeca. Each line of the three-line envoi must end with one of the end words but also must contain within it one of the other end words. There are several possible patterns for the envoi, but the most common are ace or eca for the end words and bdf or fdb for the middle words.

Since the same words are repeated throughout the poem, the sestina is an excellent vehicle for meditation on complex and multiple meanings.

Sestina

DescriptionThe sestina is a medieval provencal poetic form attributed to the troubadour Arnaut Daniel. It consists of six six-line stanzas, ending with a three-line envoi.

Since the same words are repeated throughout the poem, the sestina is an excellent vehicle for meditation on complex and multiple meanings.

Complete 360 (Site) - A brief description and history of the sestina form with examples.
Island Sestina (Site) - A sestina by Kathleen Craker Firestone, at the Northern Michigan Journal's website.
McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Sestinas (Site) - A site that posts submissions of sestinas only. The quality varies.
Moo World Order: Sestina Creator (Site) - Fill in the end words of the first six-line stanza and the site will list the order of the words in the rest of the poem.
My Sestina (Site) - Sestina by S.K. Iyer.
Poetic Form: Sestina (Site) - An explanation of the form with a link to Ashberry's "Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape" and an explanation of Marie Ponsot's redaction of the form, the "tritina." From the Academy of American Poets.
Poetry Form - The Sestina. (Site) - A description and explanation of the form, with examples and a step-by-step guide to writing one.
Sestina (Site) - By Elizabeth Bishop.
Sestina (Site) - A brief definition and description from a course at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sestina (Site) - By Algernon Charles Swinburne. Unusual in its use of rhyme.
Sestina (Site) - Description and examples from a course taught by Alberto Rios.
Sestina in the Computer Age (Site) - By Scott Reid.
Sestina of the Tramp-Royal (Site) - By Rudyard Kipling, in Cockney dialect. Part of the DayPoems Poetry Collection edited by Timothy Bovee.
Sestina: Altaforte (Site) - By Ezra Pound. Perhaps the most famous modern use of the form.
Sestinas for Free (Site) - A collection by Nicholas Gordon that can be used free for any personal or non-commercial purpose.
Some Thoughts on Sestinas (Site) - An article by Lawrence Schimel with an example by Joe Haldeman. Part of a series in Writing-World.com.
The Krenek Sestinas (Site) - By Don Mager. A set of six related sestinas both echoing and about the music and life of Ernst Krenek, a serial composer. Part of Eclectica Magazine v2n2.
The Sestina Page (Site) - A webpage devoted to the sestina form, with a large online archive of examples.
The Shrinking Lonesome Sestina (Site) - By Miller Williams. Part of a larger site called The Wondering Minstrels.