Sestina Challenge
A sestina is one of the most challenging forms of poetry. It follows a rigid
structure consisting of six stanzas of six lines and an envoi of three lines. An
envoi is a short stanza at the end of a poem. A sestina is also usually written in
iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line). The basic form of a sestina is below:
First Stanza 1-2-3-4-5-6
Second Stanza 6-1-5-2-4-3
Third Stanza 3-6-4-1-2-5
Fourth Stanza 5-3-2-6-1-4
Fifth Stanza 4-5-1-3-6-2
Sixth Stanza 2-4-6-5-3-1
First line of Envoi 2-5
Second line of Envoi 4-3
Third line of Envoi 6-1
The numbers correlate to a specific end word. Consider the first line of this
sestina, creatively entitled ‘Sestina’, by Algernon Swinburne, and pay close
attention to the end words:
I saw my soul at rest upon a day
As a bird sleeping in the nest of night,
Among soft leaves that give the starlight way
To touch its wings but not its eyes with light;
So that it knew as one in visions may,
And knew not as men waking, of delight.
You’ll see that day is end word 1. This means that day would be the end word of
the second line in stanza two, the fifth line in stanza three, and so on. This also
means that the word day would appear no less than seven times in your sestina –
once in each of the six stanzas, and once in the envoi.
So, to recap, in Algernon Swinburne’s sestina, the end words are as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
day
night
way
light
may
delight
Note that the end words in a sestina do not need to rhyme, although Swinburne’s
do. Take a look at the end words from some well known sestinas as an example of
end word choices:
‘Sestina : Altaforte’ by Ezra Pound:
peace, music, clash, opposing, crimson, rejoicing.
‘Ye Goat-herd Gods’ by Sir Philip Sidney:
mountains, valleys, forests, music, morning, evening.
The Envoi
First line of Envoi 2-5
Second line of Envoi 4-3
Third line of Envoi 6-1
The envoi consists of three lines. In these lines, three of the end words appear
within the line, and three at the end. Looking at the format above, notice how all
6 end words appear in the envoi:
Song, have thy day and take thy fill of light
Before the night be fallen across thy way;
Sing while he may, man hath no long delight.
As you may have noticed, the envoy of this particular sestina does not follow the
rule. The rules for the envoy are sometimes not strictly enforced, and occasionally
the order is jumbled around. When creating your sestina, try to avoid being a
rebel like Swinburne, and stick to the rules at the top of the page!
The end words are the most important things to consider before beginning your
sestina! Think about words that could have more than one meaning to vary how
you can use them. For example:
The word bow can have several meanings and pronunciations.
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An actor takes a bow at the end of a performance.
A girl may wear a bow in her hair.
The bow is the front of a ship.
You create music by sliding a bow across the strings of a violin.
Robin Hood carried around a bow and arrow.
Just for fun, below is a graphical representation of the algorithm for ordering the end-words in
a sestina:
Task: Write a sestina with the theme of Food. You can start by completing the
spider diagram below by writing in anything that springs to mind when you think
about Food.
Food
Next, choose your end words:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Notes about end words:





They do not have to rhyme
Words with more than one meaning allow greater variety
You will need to use each word seven times throughout
You’re allowed to change the prefix, suffix or tense of the word (so “flame”
could become “aflame,” “flaming,” “flames,” “flamed”, “flammable” etc)
You can change its spelling in order to give a different meaning (”see” could
become “sea”)
You can use any number of templates online to help keep you on track. For
example, type your 6 end words into the following website, and then click
‘standard’ to have everything organized for you. Just copy and past the text
into a word document and fire away!
Sestina Helper: http://dilute.net/sestinas/
You can also have a look for more example of sestinas online. For example,
Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Sestina of the Tramp-Royal’:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176147
Good luck!