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The sestina is a formal poem with six stanzas of six lines and a triplet, using six chosen words as the last word of each line. It was invented in the 12th century and has been used by famous poets. Writing a sestina can help explore creativity and studying examples is recommended.
The sestina is a type of formal poetry that is based on an exact structure of the language. A sextuplet, by definition, consists of 39 lines: six stanzas of six lines, followed by a three-line stanza, known as a triplet. Traditionally, the sextuplet was written in iambic pentameter; however, most writers today don’t see it as a necessity for the form.
In a sextuplet, the writer must choose six different words that will be used as the last word in each line of the poem. For example, the last word for each line of the first verse might be: dog, rain, child, pity, garden, fight. In the next verse, the words shift in order; then the lines of the second verse would end: rain, child, sin, garden, fight, dog. This process continues up to the sixth stanza.
In the final tercet, the first line will contain the words “dog” and “rain”, the second will contain “child” and “sin”, and the third will contain “garden” and “struggle”; however, they don’t need to be at the end of the line.
The sestina was first invented in the 12th century by a famous French troubadour, Arnaut Daniel. Throughout history, many famous poets have written sestet; among them, Elizabeth Bishop, Dante, Ezra Pound and WH Auden. Additionally, a popular online literary journal, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, regularly publishes sestina on various topics – a recent presentation is titled “Sestina with Clementines, Beer and Guitar.”
Because the sestet has such a strict form, many writers find that writing sestet helps them explore their creativity. Because they just reuse certain words, they are forced to come up with original verses that the words will fit into. Often writers begin a poem as a sestet and then edit it into a less structured free verse poem.
If you want to write a sestet, the best way to learn is to study examples of sestet by other writers. Some famous and successful sestinas that are readily available are Elizabeth Bishop’s “Sestina” and Ezra Pound’s “Sestina: Altaforte”. Many poetry books also focus on the sestet; For a good overview of the sestina and other forms of poetry, read Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook.
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