Angeline
Poet Chick
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2002
- Posts
- 27,359
The sestina is a traditional form of poetry dating back to twelfth-century France. It is considered one of the most complex (and therefore difficult) forms to write. Personally, I don't find it so much "hard" as really time-consuming.
In a traditional Sestina:
The lines are grouped into six sestets and a concluding tercet. Thus a Sestina has 39 lines.
Lines may be of any length. Their length is usually consistent in a single poem.
The six words that end each of the lines of the first stanza are repeated in a different order at the end of lines in each of the subsequent five stanzas.
The repeated words are unrhymed.
The first line of each sestet after the first ends with the same word as the one that ended the last line of the sestet before it.
In the closing tercet, each of the six words are used, with one in the middle of each line and one at the end.
The pattern of word-repetition is as follows, where the words that end the lines of the first sestet are represented by the numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6:
1 2 3 4 5 6 ________End words of lines in first sestet.
6 1 5 2 4 3 ________End words of lines in second sestet.
3 6 4 1 2 5 ________End words of lines in third sestet.
5 3 2 6 1 4 ________End words of lines in fourth sestet.
4 5 1 3 6 2 ________End words of lines in fifth sestet.
2 4 6 5 3 1 ________End words of lines in sixth sestet.
(6 2) (1 4) (5 3) ____Middle and end words of lines in tercet.
Traditionally they were also written in iambic pentameter, which I tried once but it almost made my brain explode.
So. Want one of these before you give it a try?
http://syntaxofthings.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/aspirin.jpg
Here's the first one I ever wrote.
Ocean Sesto
It's cold tonight at water's edge.
Beyond the horizon lies everything.
I've heard an ocean can carry blues
in waves catapulted by the wind
to whisper faith or sigh of loss,
echoed in whorls of hollow shells.
I've scanned shores for perfect shells,
sinistral curved with fluted edge
like porcelain treasures hiding loss,
beautifully bereft of everything,
but faintly singing like the wind
blows depths of boundless blues.
I've seen the world as seas of blues,
and brasses, woodwinds all as shells
that float their minor notes on wind,
and echo past a night's belled edge,
filling the heart with everything
that's fragile beauty tinged with loss.
A starless night embraces loss
as empty hearts fill up with blues,
denying naught but everything;
illusion overflowing shells
like Trompe l'Oeil tricks vision’s edge,
or breathless echoes ape the wind.
Perhaps distant shores blow wind
in constant faith construed as loss,
and traveled too far dull the edge
of understanding, blurred like blues
mute harmony and moan from shells
in rhythmic slurs, obscuring everything.
So sad songs seem like everything
on empty nights that sing with wind,
sighing through our echoing shells,
conducting symphonies of loss
or simply sounding wordless blues
that drown beyond illusion's edge.
Why do shells sing everything
the ocean's edge carries on wind?
Why must I love this loss, these blues?
The_Fool wrote at least one; so did some other folks here. Wanna give it a try?
In a traditional Sestina:
The lines are grouped into six sestets and a concluding tercet. Thus a Sestina has 39 lines.
Lines may be of any length. Their length is usually consistent in a single poem.
The six words that end each of the lines of the first stanza are repeated in a different order at the end of lines in each of the subsequent five stanzas.
The repeated words are unrhymed.
The first line of each sestet after the first ends with the same word as the one that ended the last line of the sestet before it.
In the closing tercet, each of the six words are used, with one in the middle of each line and one at the end.
The pattern of word-repetition is as follows, where the words that end the lines of the first sestet are represented by the numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6:
1 2 3 4 5 6 ________End words of lines in first sestet.
6 1 5 2 4 3 ________End words of lines in second sestet.
3 6 4 1 2 5 ________End words of lines in third sestet.
5 3 2 6 1 4 ________End words of lines in fourth sestet.
4 5 1 3 6 2 ________End words of lines in fifth sestet.
2 4 6 5 3 1 ________End words of lines in sixth sestet.
(6 2) (1 4) (5 3) ____Middle and end words of lines in tercet.
Traditionally they were also written in iambic pentameter, which I tried once but it almost made my brain explode.
So. Want one of these before you give it a try?
http://syntaxofthings.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/aspirin.jpg
Here's the first one I ever wrote.
Ocean Sesto
It's cold tonight at water's edge.
Beyond the horizon lies everything.
I've heard an ocean can carry blues
in waves catapulted by the wind
to whisper faith or sigh of loss,
echoed in whorls of hollow shells.
I've scanned shores for perfect shells,
sinistral curved with fluted edge
like porcelain treasures hiding loss,
beautifully bereft of everything,
but faintly singing like the wind
blows depths of boundless blues.
I've seen the world as seas of blues,
and brasses, woodwinds all as shells
that float their minor notes on wind,
and echo past a night's belled edge,
filling the heart with everything
that's fragile beauty tinged with loss.
A starless night embraces loss
as empty hearts fill up with blues,
denying naught but everything;
illusion overflowing shells
like Trompe l'Oeil tricks vision’s edge,
or breathless echoes ape the wind.
Perhaps distant shores blow wind
in constant faith construed as loss,
and traveled too far dull the edge
of understanding, blurred like blues
mute harmony and moan from shells
in rhythmic slurs, obscuring everything.
So sad songs seem like everything
on empty nights that sing with wind,
sighing through our echoing shells,
conducting symphonies of loss
or simply sounding wordless blues
that drown beyond illusion's edge.
Why do shells sing everything
the ocean's edge carries on wind?
Why must I love this loss, these blues?
The_Fool wrote at least one; so did some other folks here. Wanna give it a try?
