How to write… a sestina.
The sestina can seem like a bit of a formidable form to the uninitiated — it’s kind of like poetry meets maths. Here’s a rough guide for those of you who fancy having a go…
Sestina is a complex poetic form originally from Italy, and the word “sestina” comes from the Italian “sesto”, which means “six.” That’s basically because the number six is essential to the form of the sestina — it has to have six stanzas, each with six lines.
Sounds easy, right? So far, yes. But there are additional complications. Once you’ve written the sestina’s six six-line stanza, you also have to write a tercet on the end — a final stanza of only three lines, usually called the envoy, as a kind of conclusion. But the most important thing about the sestina is its repetition.
Before you begin a sestina, you need to pick six words. Any six words will do, but think carefully… because these same six words have to be used — in a very specific pattern — to end every single line of the six main stanzas. They must also all be used in the final tercet.
Confused now? If so, I am not surprised. Basically, you can use only the six words you have chosen to end your lines (until the tercet, but we’ll get to that in a minute). This limits your options in terms of where lines can ‘go,’ and depending on what your words are, it may also limit the subject matter of your poem. As you can imagine, it gets pretty repetitive, too.
In order to avoid the repetition, and the risk of boring or limited lines, you should try to pick words that are flexible, or have several meanings. 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 even change the word completely as long as the new word retains some link to the old one (I recently wrote a sestina in which “melon” became “melancholy” for example). Just don’t stray too far or technically it’s no longer a sestina!
When you pick your six words, give each of them a number between one and six — this will help you when writing out your sestina: the pattern you’re required to stick to (123456, 615243, 364125, 532614, 451362, 246531 — remember I said it was like maths?!) is tricky to remember and having the numbers at hand will really help. I recommend bookmarking this sestina creator — it will help you to remember which words need to come at the end of which line and save you memorising the order (it will also provde you with random words if you’re having trouble thinking of some!).
When it comes to the tercet, you need to use all of your six words somewhere in your final three lines. Preferably, you should use two in each line, but the order is not important — plus, this is fairly flexible. Technically, your sestina should also be written entirely in iambic pentameter, too… but frankly, you have heaps to worry about and it’s usually still considered a sestina even if you don’t bother with this strict metre.
I know that after all that the idea of actually writing one of the darned things seems terrifying… but I really would recommend giving it a go. Sestinas are hard to get right first time so give yourself room to play around, and don’t expect miracles — just enjoy messing about with a technique you’ve never used before. As you get more confident, you can try trickier words, or challenge yourself to keep your lines a regular length — this can be surprisingly hard! And once you’ve had a few goes, you can start to play with the rules a little bit and think about creating a subverted sestina of some kind… you can even try a double sestina which has twelve stanzas of twelve lines each, which all end with the same twelve words!
If you need a bit of help, the sestina creator is one of the best things you can use — it does a lot of the mathematical legwork for you. If that feels too much like cheating, Wikipedia has a little how-to… and if all else fails, you just need to copy out the pattern of numbers above and number all the lines on your piece of paper before you start!
If you do write a sestina, I’d love to see it — you can feel free to drop me a line to claire@onenightstanzas.com, or leave your sestinas for all to see in the comments box!
Spiral Notebook, originally uploaded by Poofy.
Tags: advice for young writers, how to write a sestina, publishing, resources for young writers, young poets
February 24th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Sestine creator! Genius, although I believe I shall be unable to do it! I’m really trying though
Thanks for all the info as ever xx
February 25th, 2009 at 9:07 am
this is a useful guide. I’ve written one sestina, it just felt like it was going on forever and not really getting anywhere
February 25th, 2009 at 10:15 am
I’ve written two not-so-good sestinas before. I wanna give it another go pretty soon, though!
February 25th, 2009 at 10:58 am
I thought it was really fun & challenging to be given the 6 words. I probably wouldn’t have bothered trying if I hadn’t felt slightly obligated to own up to someone, you know?
You ought to make everyone write you sestinas Claire! or offer up 6 words for others to sestin-ize!
=)
February 26th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Thanks for posting this, Claire - I’ve been thinking about writing a sestina for a while, but hadn’t got around to looking up the exact details and pattern.
Now I have no excuse!
Will you be writing about other poetic forms? (Can I put in a request for villanelles?)
February 28th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
A very informative article Claire. Thanks for posting this. Sestinas are a tricky beast for certain. Here’s an attempt at one I wrote a time back (for better or worse…lol):
Steal the Sun
Let’s steal the sun that brings new hope at dawn;
prolong the endless night that does not change.
For much has masqueraded as the light,
and many call to dark, “Become the day.”
It’s easy to believe what one creates;
so comforting to bend the light at will.
Bring the heaven’s down to me, and I will
fabricate the morning star; paint the dawn,
colors fail. Meaning lost though we create
another way, cleverly hiding from change
of heart. Remove atonement made His day;
for you, for me, for all have failed the light.
Don’t speak of day or night; darkness or light.
I am incognito. Lands of free will,
free falling into spontaneous day;
without a thought for absent sun at dawn.
“Don’t need redemption,” says the winds of change;
but we are not the wind, can mist create?
A moment comes assuredly; create
escape from death for me. Invent a light-
Surely we are gods of all that changes?
Perhaps I’ll simply fly from life by will
of perfect man-made way? A flawless dawn?
I can’t go wrong, we’ve purchased darkest day.
Guide me by Sun, as man eclipses day.
Don’t care about the blood red sky; create
for me, oh Lord, refiners golden dawn
inside. Hold me close, so I would choose light;
that I might not fall to darkness by will
of way, without the Sun that brings true change.
May we lay beside the blood you’ve spilled; change
the heart of man whose hands have bloodied day.
For you have sacrificed your life, by will,
to show us all the Sun that love creates.
Let’s lift the Sun of God, restore the light;
without Him there would be no hope at dawn.
At dawn with rays of hope that lead to change,
I chase the light that leads through shadow day.
He creates throughout, wonders by His will.
March 16th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
I’ve never written a sestina (too much like too much of an effort to me…)
But I did come up with a wee spreadsheet that gives word orders for sestina like poems… I was quite bored that day.
I wrote about it here: http://stars-sliding.blogspot.com/2009/02/feelin-oulipian.html
:)
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