Poetic Form
Sestina
A 39-line form with six rotating end-words and a three-line envoi.
Lines39Six sestets and an envoi
End-WordsSixRepeated in every stanza
RhymeNone requiredRepetition does the work
Envoi3 linesUses all six end-words
About the Sestina
The sestina is a fixed form of thirty-nine lines built on the obsessive repetition of six end-words. The same six words conclude every line in the poem, rotating through a strict pattern that yields, despite the repetition, surprising variation in meaning.
Structure
Six six-line stanzas plus a closing three-line envoi (39 lines total). The six end-words of the first stanza recur as end-words of every subsequent stanza, in a fixed rotation. The envoi uses all six end-words across its three lines, two per line.
Sestina
Letters are end-words, not rhymes
Stanza 1
1A
2B
3C
4D
5E
6F
Stanza 2
7F
8A
9E
10B
11D
12C
Stanza 3
13C
14F
15D
16A
17B
18E
Stanza 4
19E
20C
21B
22F
23A
24D
Stanza 5
25D
26E
27A
28C
29F
30B
Stanza 6
31B
32D
33F
34E
35C
36A
Envoi
37BE
38DC
39FA
A Short History
- 1100sThe troubadour Arnaut Daniel invents the form.
- Late 1200s to 1300sDante and Petrarch take it up in Italian.
- 1500sSpenser and Sidney bring it into English.
- 1900sPound, Auden and Bishop revive it.
- TodayA favorite challenge for contemporary poets.
Famous Sestinas
- 01"Lo ferm voler qu'el cor m'intra"Arnaut Daniel
- 02"Sestina"Elizabeth Bishop
- 03"Sestina: Altaforte"Ezra Pound
Questions About the Sestina
The things people ask most, answered in a sentence or two.
Thirty-nine: six stanzas of six lines, then a three-line envoi.
The six end-words of the first stanza return in every stanza in a fixed order. Each new stanza takes the last word, then the first, then the fifth, then the second, then the fourth, then the third of the stanza before.
The envoi is the closing three-line stanza. It uses all six end-words, two in each line, one in the middle and one at the end.