This post is part of the Poetic Forms series.
The Sestina is a French verse poetry form, traditionally consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, concluded with a three-line envoi, otherwise known as a tornada1. An envoi is generally referred to as a short stanza that in some form reflects, comments upon, or otherwise concludes a poem. This means sestinas are traditionally a total of 39 lines, though many modern examples play with this formatting.2
The most notable facet of the sestina is the use of a strict pattern, in which the last words of the first six lines (in the first stanza) are repeated throughout the piece. The pattern apears as such:
1 2 3 4 5 6
6 1 5 2 4 3
3 6 4 1 2 5
5 3 2 6 1 4
4 5 1 3 6 2
2 4 6 5 3 1
(6 2) (1 4) (5 3)
Each line (row) above refers to a stanza, and the numbers themselves refer to the word that should appear at the end of that line. There is no specific rhyme scheme or syllabic count used in the sestina form, though there used to be previous incarnations that included such.
The sestina originated in the 12th century and is attributed to Arnaut Daniel, who was a troubadour. Trubadours, the name of which is belived to refer to the word “trobar”, meaning “to compose verse”, would perform their verses, oftentimes in accompaniment to music. The form eventually also travelled to Italy, where it was to take on new forms. While the sestina was originally directly correlated to the expression of “courtly” love, in large part due to its roots with the troubadours, it became famously known as a form for expressions of all kinds.
Notable Examples
Sestina of the Tramp-Royal by Rudyard Kipling
Sestina: The Ships Go Nowhere by Stanley Moss
Sestina: Travel Notes by Weldon Kees
