Sestina


Form: Write a sestina.

Theme: Try one of the following (or follow one of your own):

  • Rules for a children's game
  • Someone speaking from beyond the grave
  • The world underneath this world
  • A day in the life of a poet whose work you admire
  • Trying to get lost
  • Inviting a friend to supper
  • Someone speaking from the deck of the ship in the bottle.
Method: Begin by writing your first stanza. Revise it until the words at the ends of the lines are ones that will readily bear repetition throughout the rest of the poem. Look for a mix of abstract words (say, 2) and concrete ones (say, 4). 

Readings: In Strand and Boland: 

On the sestina, pp. 21-25
Rudyard Kipling, p. 33
Ezra Pound, p. 34
Weldon Kees, p. 36
Miller Williams, p. 38
Readings: On the Web:
Arnaut Daniel, Lo ferm voler
Elizabeth Bishop, Sestina
Anthony Hecht, Sestina d'Inverno
William Meredith, The Jain Bird Hospital in Delhi

Class Poems