Sestina
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A sestina (, from ''sesto'', sixth;
Old Occitan Old Occitan ( oc, occitan ancian, label=Occitan language, Modern Occitan, ca, occità antic), also called Old Provençal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the eighth through the fourteen ...
: ''cledisat'' ; also known as ''sestine'', ''sextine'', ''sextain'') is a fixed verse form consisting of six
stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...
s of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line
envoi Envoi or envoy in poetry is used to describe: * A short stanza at the end of a poem such as a ballad, used either to address an imagined or actual person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem. * A dedicatory poem about sending the book o ...
. The words that end each line of the first stanza are used as line endings in each of the following stanzas, rotated in a set pattern. The invention of the form is usually attributed to
Arnaut Daniel Arnaut Daniel (; fl. 1180–1200) was an Occitan troubadour of the 12th century, praised by Dante as "the best smith" (''miglior fabbro'') and called a "grand master of love" (''gran maestro d'amore'') by Petrarch. In the 20th century he was lau ...
, a troubadour of 12th-century
Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...
, and the first sestinas were written in the
Occitan language Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Ital ...
of that region. The form was cultivated by his fellow troubadours, then by other poets across
Continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...
in the subsequent centuries; they contributed to what would become the "standard form" of the sestina. The earliest example of the form in English appeared in 1579, though they were rarely written in Britain until the end of the 19th century. The sestina remains a popular poetic form, and many sestinas continue to be written by contemporary poets.


History

The oldest-known sestina is "Lo ferm voler qu'el cor m'intra", written around 1200 by
Arnaut Daniel Arnaut Daniel (; fl. 1180–1200) was an Occitan troubadour of the 12th century, praised by Dante as "the best smith" (''miglior fabbro'') and called a "grand master of love" (''gran maestro d'amore'') by Petrarch. In the 20th century he was lau ...
, a
troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...
of Aquitanian origin; he refers to it as "cledisat", meaning, more or less, "interlock". Hence, Daniel is generally considered the form's inventor,Fry 2007 p. 235 though it has been suggested that he may only have innovated an already existing form.Davidson 1910 pp. 18–20 Nevertheless, two other original troubadouric sestinas are known, the best known being "Eras, pus vey mon benastruc" by
Guilhem Peire Cazals de Caortz Guilhem Peire Cazals de Caortz or Guilhem Peire de Cazals was a troubadour of the first half of the thirteenth century. He was born or lived in Cahors, Quercy, from which his name "de Caortz". Eleven of his works, including one ''tenso'', survive. ...
; there are also two
contrafacta In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this procedure (sometimes referred to as ''adaptation''), date back ...
built on the same end-words, the best known being ''Ben gran avoleza intra'' by
Bertran de Born Bertran de Born (; 1140s – by 1215) was a baron from the Limousin in France, and one of the major Occitan troubadours of the 12th-13th century. He composed love songs (cansos) but was better known for his political songs (sirventes). He wa ...
. These early sestinas were written in
Old Occitan Old Occitan ( oc, occitan ancian, label=Occitan language, Modern Occitan, ca, occità antic), also called Old Provençal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the eighth through the fourteen ...
; the form started spilling into Italian with
Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
in the 13th century; by the 15th, it was used in Portuguese by
Luís de Camões Luís Vaz de Camões (; sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns, ; c. 1524 or 1525 – 10 June 1580) is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespear ...
. The involvement of Dante and
Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...
in establishing the sestina form, together with the contributions of others in the country, account for its classification as an Italian verse form—despite not originating there.Stratton 1917 pp. 306, 316, 318 The result was that the sestina was re-imported into France from Italy in the 16th century.Kastner 1903 p. 283
Pontus de Tyard Pontus de Tyard (also Thyard, Thiard) (c. 1521 – 23 September 1605) was a French poet and priest, a member of "La Pléiade". Life He was born at Bissy-sur-Fley in Burgundy, of which he was ''seigneur'', but the exact year of his birth is u ...
was the first poet to attempt the form in French, and the only one to do so prior to the 19th century; he introduced a partial
rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...
in his sestina.Kastner 1903 pp. 283–4


English

An early version of the sestina in
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
is the "Hymn to Venus" by
Elizabeth Woodville Elizabeth Woodville (also spelt Wydville, Wydeville, or Widvile;Although spelling of the family name is usually modernised to "Woodville", it was spelt "Wydeville" in contemporary publications by Caxton, but her tomb at St. George's Chapel, Wind ...
(1437–1492); it is an "elaboration" on the form, found in one single manuscript. It is a six-stanza poem that praises
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...
, the goddess of love, and consists of six seven-line stanzas in which the first line of each stanza is also its last line, and the lines of the first stanza provide the first lines for each subsequent stanza. The first appearance of the sestina in English print is "Ye wastefull woodes", comprising lines 151–89 of the August Æglogue in
Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of ...
's '' Shepherd's Calendar'', published in 1579. It is in unrhymed iambic pentameter, but the order of end-words in each stanza is non-standard – ending 123456, 612345, etc. – each stanza promoting the previous final end-word to the first line, but otherwise leaving the order intact; the envoi order is (1) 2 / (3) 4 / (5) 6. This scheme was set by the Spaniard
Gutierre de Cetina Gutierre de Cetina (1519–1554) was a Spanish poet and soldier. Biography Cetina was born at Seville. He was the brother of Beltrán and Gregorio de Cetina, lesser known conquistadors. He served under Charles V in Italy and Germany, but retired ...
.Shapiro 1980 p. 185 Although they appeared in print later,
Philip Sidney Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...
's three sestinas may have been written earlier, and are often credited as the first in English. The first published (toward the end of Book I of ''
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia ''The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia'', also known simply as the ''Arcadia'', is a long prose pastoral romance by Sir Philip Sidney written towards the end of the 16th century. Having finished one version of his text, Sidney later significantly ...
'', 1590Ferguson 1996 pp. 188–90) is the double sestina "Ye Goatherd Gods". In this variant the standard end-word pattern is repeated for twelve stanzas, ending with a three-line envoi, resulting in a poem of 75 lines. Two others were published in subsequent editions of the ''Arcadia''. The second, "Since wailing is a bud of causeful sorrow", is in the "standard" form. Like "Ye Goatherd Gods" it is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter and uses exclusively feminine endings, reflecting the Italian ''endecasillabo''. The third, "Farewell, O sun, Arcadia's clearest light", is the first rhyming sestina in English: it is in iambic pentameters and follows the standard end-word scheme, but rhymes ABABCC in the first stanza (the
rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...
necessarily changes in each subsequent stanza, a consequence of which is that the 6th stanza is in rhyming couplets). Sidney uses the same envoi structure as Spenser.
William Drummond of Hawthornden William Drummond (13 December 15854 December 1649), called "of Hawthornden", was a Scottish poet. Life Drummond was born at Hawthornden Castle, Midlothian, to John Drummond, the first laird of Hawthornden, and Susannah Fowler, sister of the ...
published two sestinas (which he called "sextains") in 1616, which copy the form of Sidney's rhyming sestina. After this, there is an absence of notable sestinas for over 250 years,Burt 2007 p. 219 with
John Frederick Nims John Frederick Nims (November 20, 1913 in Muskegon, Michigan – January 13, 1999, aged 85, in Chicago, Illinois) was an American poet and academic. Life He graduated from DePaul University, University of Notre Dame with an M.A., and from the Uni ...
noting that, "... there is not a single sestina in the three volumes of the Oxford anthologies that cover the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."Caplan 2006 pp. 19–20 In the 1870s, there was a revival of interest in French forms, led by
Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University ...
,
Austin Dobson :''This article describes the English racing driver. For the English poet, see Henry Austin Dobson''. Austin Dobson (19 August 1912 in Lodsworth, Sussex – 13 March 1963 in Cuckfield, Sussex) was a racing driver from England. He was the ...
,
Edmund Gosse Sir Edmund William Gosse (; 21 September 184916 May 1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, but broke away sharply from that faith. His account of his childhoo ...
,
W. E. Henley William Ernest Henley (23 August 184911 July 1903) was an English poet, writer, critic and editor. Though he wrote several books of poetry, Henley is remembered most often for his 1875 poem " Invictus". A fixture in London literary circles, the ...
, John Payne, and others.White 1887 p xxxix The earliest sestina of this period is
Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as ''Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition ...
's "Sestina". It is in iambic pentameter rhyming ABABAB in the first stanza; each stanza begins by repeating the previous end-words 6 then 1, but the following 4 lines repeat the remaining end-words ''ad lib''; the envoi is (1) 4 / (2) 3 / (5) 6. In the same volume (''Poems and Ballads, Second Series'', 1878) Swinburne introduces a "double sestina"Lennard 2006 p. 53 ("The Complaint of Lisa") that is unlike Sidney's: it comprises 12 stanzas of 12 iambic pentameter lines each, the first stanza rhyming ABCABDCEFEDF. Similar to his "Sestina", each stanza first repeats end-words 12 then 1 of the previous stanza; the rest are ''ad lib''. The envoi is (12) 10 / (8) 9 / (7) 4 / (3) 6 / (2) 1 / (11) 5. From the 1930s, a revival of the form took place across the English-speaking world, led by poets such as
W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...
, and the 1950s were described as the "age of the sestina" by James E. B. Breslin.Caplan 2006 p. 20 "Sestina: Altaforte" by
Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
and "Paysage moralisé" by W. H. Auden are distinguished modern examples of the sestina.Preminger 1993 p. 1147 The sestina remains a popular closed verse form, and many sestinas continue to be written by contemporary poets;Burt 2007 pp. 218–19 notable examples include "The Guest Ellen at the Supper for Street People" by David Ferry and "IVF" by Kona Macphee.


Form

Although the sestina has been subject to many revisions throughout its development, there remain several features that define the form. The sestina is composed of six stanzas of six lines (sixains), followed by a stanza of three lines (a
tercet A tercet is composed of three lines of poetry, forming a stanza or a complete poem. Examples of tercet forms English-language haiku is an example of an unrhymed tercet poem. A poetic triplet is a tercet in which all three lines follow the same ...
).Fry 2007 p. 231 There is no rhyme within the stanzas;Spanos 1978 p. 546 instead the sestina is structured through a recurrent pattern of the words that end each line, a technique known as "lexical repetition".Fry 2007 p. 232 In the original form composed by Daniel, each line is of ten
syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
s, except the first of each stanza which are of seven.Kastner 1903 p. 284 The established form, as developed by Petrarch and Dante, was in
hendecasyllable In poetry, a hendecasyllable (sometimes hendecasyllabic) is a line of eleven syllables. The term may refer to several different poetic meters, the older of which are quantitative and used chiefly in classical (Ancient Greek and Latin) poetry, and ...
s. Since then, changes to the line length have been a relatively common variant,Strand et al. 2001 p. 24 such that
Stephanie Burt Stephanie Burt (born 1971) is a literary critic and poet who is Professor of English at Harvard University. ''The New York Times'' has called her "one of the most influential poetry critics of ergeneration". Burt grew up around Washington, D.C. S ...
has written: "sestinas, as the form exists today,
o not O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...
require expertise with inherited meter ...".Burt 2007 p. 222 The pattern that the line-ending words follow is often explained if the numbers 1 to 6 are allowed to stand for the end-words of the first stanza. Each successive stanza takes its pattern based upon a bottom-up pairing of the lines of the preceding stanza (i.e., last and first, then second-from-last and second, then third-from-last and third). Given that the pattern for the first stanza is 123456, this produces 615243 in the second stanza, numerical series which corresponds, as
Paolo Canettieri Paolo Canettieri (born 1965, Viterbo) is a romance philologist, working in Italy. He is a full professor at the University of Rome and researcher in the Department of European, American and Intercultural Studies. He is one of the founders of Cognit ...
has shown, to the way in which the points on the
dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...
are arranged. This genetic hypothesis is supported by the fact that Arnaut Daniel was a strong dice player and various images related to this game are present in his poetic texts. Another way of visualising the pattern of line-ending words for each stanza is by the procedure known as ''retrogradatio cruciata'', which may be rendered as "backward crossing".Krysl 2004 p. 9 The second stanza can be seen to have been formed from three sets of pairs (6–1, 5–2, 4–3), or two triads (1–2–3, 4–5–6). The 1–2–3 triad appears in its original order, but the 4–5–6 triad is reversed and superimposed upon it.Shapiro 1980 pp. 7–8 The pattern of the line-ending words in a sestina is represented both numerically and alphabetically in the following table: The sixth stanza is followed by a tercet that is known variably by the French term envoi, the Occitan term tornada, or, with reference to its size in relation to the preceding stanzas, a "half-stanza".Gasparov 1996 p. 159 It consists of three lines that include all six of the line-ending words of the preceding stanzas. This should take the pattern of 2–5, 4–3, 6–1 (numbers relative to the first stanza); the first end-word of each pair can occur anywhere in the line, while the second must end the line.Fry 2007 p. 234 However, the end-word order of the envoi is no longer strictly enforced.Fry 2007 p. 237 The sestina has been subject to some variations, with changes being made to both the size and number of stanzas, and also to individual line length. A "double sestina" is the name given to either: two sets of six six-line stanzas, with a three-line envoy (for a total of 75 lines), or twelve twelve-line stanzas, with a six-line envoy (for a total of 150 lines). Examples of either variation are rare; "Ye Goatherd Gods" by
Philip Sidney Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...
is a notable example of the former variation, while "The Complaint of Lisa" by Algernon Charles Swinburne is a notable example of the latter variation. In the former variation, the original pattern of line-ending words, i.e. that of the first stanza, recurs in the seventh stanza, and thus the entire change of pattern occurs twice throughout. In the second variation, the pattern of line-ending words returns to the starting sequence in the eleventh stanza; thus it does not, unlike the "single" sestina, allow for every end-word to occupy each of the stanza ends; end-words 5 and 10 fail to couple between stanzas.


Effect

The structure of the sestina, which demands adherence to a strict and arbitrary order, produces several effects within a poem.
Stephanie Burt Stephanie Burt (born 1971) is a literary critic and poet who is Professor of English at Harvard University. ''The New York Times'' has called her "one of the most influential poetry critics of ergeneration". Burt grew up around Washington, D.C. S ...
notes that, "The sestina has served, historically, as a complaint", its harsh demands acting as "signs for deprivation or duress". The structure can enhance the subject matter that it orders; in reference to
Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American people, American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the N ...
's ''A Miracle for Breakfast'', David Caplan suggests that the form's "harshly arbitrary demands echo its subject's".Caplan 2006 p. 23 Nevertheless, the form's structure has been criticised;
Paul Fussell Paul Fussell Jr. (22 March 1924 – 23 May 2012) was an American cultural and literary historian, author and university professor. His writings cover a variety of topics, from scholarly works on eighteenth-century English literature to commentar ...
considers the sestina to be of "dubious structural expressiveness" when composed in English and, irrespective of how it is used, "would seem to be formthat gives more structural pleasure to the contriver than to the apprehender."Fussell 1979 p. 145 Margaret Spanos highlights "a number of corresponding levels of tension and resolution" resulting from the structural form, including: structural,
semantic Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
and
aesthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...
tensions.Spanos 1987 p. 551 She believes that the aesthetic tension, which results from the "''conception'' of its mathematical completeness and perfection", set against the "''experiences'' of its labyrinthine complexities" can be resolved in the apprehension of the "harmony of the whole." The strength of the sestina, according to
Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
, is the "repetition and recycling of elusive patterns that cannot be quite held in the mind all at once".Fry 2007 p. 238 For
Shanna Compton Shanna Compton is the author of ''Down Spooky,'' a collection of poems published by Winnow Press in October 2005, and the editor of ''GAMERS: Writers, Artists & Programmers on the Pleasures of Pixels,'' an anthology of essays on the theme of vid ...
, these patterns are easily discernible by newcomers to the form; she says that: "Even someone unfamiliar with the form's rules can tell by the end of the second stanza ... what's going on ...".Burt 2007 p. 226 The 1972 television play ''
Between Time and Timbuktu ''Between Time and Timbuktu'' is a television film directed by Fred Barzyk and based on a number of works by Kurt Vonnegut. Produced by National Educational Television and WGBH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, it was telecast March 13, 1972 as a NET ...
'', based on the writings of
Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...
, was about a poet-astronaut who wanted to compose a sestina in outer space. Vonnegut wrote a sestina for the production. (Letter of 2 October 1971, to his daughter Nanette.)


See also

*
Canzone Literally "song" in Italian, a ''canzone'' (, plural: ''canzoni''; cognate with English ''to chant'') is an Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal. Sometimes a composition w ...
, an Italian or Provençal song or ballad, in which the sestina is sometimes included. *
Pentina {{Refimprove, date=March 2008 The pentina is an accentual verse, accentual-Syllabic verse, syllabic poetic form, characterized by the use of five verses of five lines each, with a two-line envoi, for a total of 27 lines. It is similar to the Fren ...
, a variation of the sestina based on five endwords. *
Villanelle A villanelle, also known as villanesque,Kastner 1903 p. 279 is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repe ...
, another type of fixed verse form.


Notes


References

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Further reading

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External links


Academy of American Poets, the sestina form and examplesMcSweeney's Internet Tendency, selection of sestinas from 2003–2007How to Write a Sestina (with Examples and Diagrams)
by Dusty Grein
University of Toronto, the form and examplesPoetry Archive, the form and examplesThe earliest known sestina
{{Authority control Poetic forms Western medieval lyric forms Rhyme Stanzaic form Occitan literary genres