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There are those who write sestinas just to show how god-awfully clever they are. And indeed, writing poems whose lines repeat last words in a bizarre, extended pattern over six, six-line stanzas (plus a short, specialized 3-line “tag" stanza) does take cleverness. However, so does threading a needle blindfolded, or getting backstage at a Metallica concert. Neither of those things, however, require much artistic sensibility. So, for our purposes, let’s can the neat tricks, and go for something more.
When discussing sestinas and other, even more exotic forms, one can often and easily enter the realm of poetry as a purely artisan-type craft (as in really prettily-made potholders versus Monet’s “Water Lilies," or construction of the local mall versus the Taj Mahal), and not nearly so often as an actual artistic expression– unless, of course, the poet is truly INSPIRED, truly has something to say, and that somehow, these forms enhance that message. It doesn’t happen often. For instance, Ezra Pound wrote some pretty convoluted, arcane stuff, even if, form-wise, he wasn’t a sestina specialist (thank God.) He did however, write one of the most famous sestinas extant, called “Sestina: Alaforte." Here’s the first two stanzas, in the basic sestina form.
Damn it all! all this our South stinks peace.
You whoreson dog, Papiols, come! Let’s to music!
I have no life save when the swords clash.
But ah! When I see the standards gold, vair, purple,
opposing,
And the broad fields beneath them turn crimson,
Then howl I my heart nigh mad with rejoicing.
In hot summer have I great rejoicing
When the tempests kill the earth’s foul peace,
And the lightnings from black heav’n flash crimson,
And the fierce thunders roar me their music
And the winds shriek through the clouds mad, opposing,
And through all the riven skies God’s swords clash.
Above, the the repetition of words do not seem planned, yet they are. And the reinforcement of the words that are repeated, though separated in their placement, hammers the reader with an incessance that the pounding (and soon, jumbled) repetitions of battle hold. So, wild as these lines are (you should hear him READ them), the sestina form works here. What IS that form?
Check the end-words of each line in the first stanza–we’ll letter them in order):
A. peace, B.music, C. clash, D. opposing, E. crimson, F. rejoicing.
Now check the end-words of each line in the second stanza.
F. rejoicing, A. peace, E., crimson, B. music, D. opposing, C. clash.
Yes, there IS a pattern to all this– and it plays out through the other stanzas in its own complicated way. The full pattern of repeated end-words, including the first two stanzas and on through to that last regular stanza (followed by a tag stanza we’ll also describe) is this way.
ABCDEF, FAEBDC, CFDABE, ECBFAD, DEACFB, BDFECA. Beyond that last of six regular, six-line stanzas, there is a three-line tag, a mini-stanza if you like, called an envoy. The envoy’s lines end with ECA or ACE, although B, D, or F may occur inside the lines.
Pound ended the above sestina this way:
And let the music of the swords make the crimson!
Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!
Hell blot black for always the thought “Peace!"
Pound’s juxtaposition of graphic words and concepts (interrelated in changing meaning throughout) in his end-lines carries the day. But this is not easy to accomplish. More often, a poet tends to be content to even complete a sestina form to expect content with that form, is one tall order.
Like the sonnet and the villanelle that we have covered previously, there is (or should be) a palpable change in tone during the poem’s progress as it moves to its end, with the repeated words and phrases altering in meaning thoughout.
If you want to try one of these sestinas, go ahead. But know that you must create something that goes beyond mere form, and go from artisan to artist, to build something with not only a strong-looking outside, but an inside of integrity and real worth. There is SO MUCH FORM in the sestina, that without such great inspiration and planning, the walls will fall in on you (and the reader) quickly. So be advised. In the meantime, we’ll order up some dogs and heavy equipment to sniff and dig you out.
A Sestina is a poem consisting of:
- Six stanzas of six-lines each
- followed by a three-line envoy.
The words ending the lines of the first stanza are repeated in a different order at the end of lines in each of the subsequent five stanzas and, two to a line, in the middle and at the end of the three lines in the closing envoy.
The patterns of word-repetitions are as follows:
(each row in the following diagram represents one stanza, and the numbers represent the last words in each line of the first stanza)
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)
Remember, this only applies to the last word of the line, so you would kind of turn this diagram on it’s sides to see how it lines up, for example:
First stanza:
1 …writing
2….can
3….fun
4….be
5….sestinas
6….Oh!
Second stanza:
6 ….Oh!
1….writing
5….sestinas
2…..can
4…..be
3…..fun
etc.
An example here is Algernon Charles Swinburne’s “Sestina." A twelve-verse rendition is called a double-sestina. There is no defined length or meter to the lines, and a sestina does not have to rhyme, though this example does.
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)
Sestina
1 I saw my soul at rest upon a day
2 As a bird sleeping in the nest of night,
3 Among soft leaves that give the starlight way
4 To touch its wings but not its eyes with light
5 So that it knew as one in visions may,
6 And knew not as men waking, of delight.
7 This was the measure of my soul’s delight
8 It had no power of joy to fly by day,
9 Nor part in the large lordship of the light
10 But in a secret moon-beholden way
11 Had all its will of dreams and pleasant night,
12 And all the love and life that sleepers may.
13 But such life’s triumph as men waking may
14 It might not have to feed its faint delight
15 Between the stars by night and sun by day,
16 Shut up with green leaves and a little light
17 Because its way was as a lost star’s way,
18 A world’s not wholly known of day or night.
19 All loves and dreams and sounds and gleams of night
20 Made it all music that such minstrels may,
21 And all they had they gave it of delight
22 But in the full face of the fire of day
23 What place shall be for any starry light,
24 What part of heaven in all the wide sun’s way?
25 Yet the soul woke not, sleeping by the way,
26 Watched as a nursling of the large-eyed night,
27 And sought no strength nor knowledge of the day,
28 Nor closer touch conclusive of delight,
29 Nor mightier joy nor truer than dreamers may,
30 Nor more of song than they, nor more of light.
31 For who sleeps once and sees the secret light
32 Whereby sleep shows the soul a fairer way
33 Between the rise and rest of day and night,
34 Shall care no more to fare as all men may,
35 But be his place of pain or of delight,
36 There shall he dwell, beholding night as day.
37 Song, have thy day and take thy fill of light
38 Before the night be fallen across thy way
39 Sing while he may, man hath no long delight.
Here is one of my efforts:
The Funeral By texxnorman
“Blessed be our God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And blessed be His Kingdom, now and forever.
My name is Pastor Joseph Fite. and I am here
to lead us in celebration of the life
of Megan Weeks, a woman filled with love,
and for four children, three of which are dead.
“We thank our God that Tiffany is not dead,
Such a loss as this can wound the spirit.
We’re in shock and questioning God’s love.
Yes, five are dead, but they’re not dead forever.
No, I believe there is an after-life.
Young people listen! I need you to hear
“but what’s even more important, you need to hear
that those we honor here today are not dead.
This may be the first time in your life
that someone you know has given up their Spirit,
and most of us are taught death lasts forever.
How could a God of love
“allow this to happen? Where is God’s love?
We’re hurting, Lord! There’s too much suffering here!
It’s more than we can take! They’re dead. Forever.
Aren’t we taught this fact about the dead?
That’s wrong! Wrong, because we don’t have a Spirit.
You think, “Hey, preacher, what about eternal life?’
“Yes, young people, I believe in life
eternal. I believe our God’s a God of love.
But we don’t have a spirit. We are Spirit.
We are Spirits that have bodies while we’re here.
Our soul wears our body. But once we’re dead
the soul discards the body, living on forever.
“God made us Spirits, so we could live forever.
That’s how He gave us our eternal life.
Yes, we miss our loved ones when they’re dead.
It hurts, of course, being separated from their love.
Our Spirits dress in flesh while we are here,
but we are not our flesh. We’re Spirit,
“and our Spirit lives forever.
We wear our bodies like space suits, our life
support is God’s love. We do not die." |
