Directory of Sestina Resources

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The sestina is a medieval provencal poetic form attributed to the troubadour Arnaut Daniel. It consists of six six-line stanzas, ending with a three-line envoi. The six words that end the lines of the first stanza are repeated as the end words of each of the other stanzas in a complex pattern that goes like this (note that each letter corresponds to an end word, not an end rhyme): abcdef, faebdc, cfdabe, ecbfad, deacfb, bdfeca. Each line of the three-line envoi must end with one of the end words but also must contain within it one of the other end words. There are several possible patterns for the envoi, but the most common are ace or eca for the end words and bdf or fdb for the middle words. Since the same words are repeated throughout the poem, the sestina is an excellent vehicle for meditation on complex and multiple meanings.

Resources in This Category

• Cledisat 9

  http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/arnaut_daniel/arnaut_daniel_09.php
  By Arnaut Daniel. A side-by-side translation from the Provencal, with a .midi version of a traditional troubadour melody. From a troubadour site, which claims this as "the first sextain in the history of literature."

• Complete 360

  http://complete360.50webs.com/sestina.html
  A brief description and history of the sestina form with examples.

• Island Sestina

  http://www.leelanau.com/nmj/views/sestina.html
  A sestina by Kathleen Craker Firestone, at the Northern Michigan Journal's website.

• McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Sestinas

  http://www.mcsweeneys.net/columns/sestinas
  A treasure trove of sestinas submitted to McSweeney's from 2003 - 2007.

• Poetic Form: Sestina

  https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/sestina-poetic-form
  An explanation of the form with a link to Ashberry's "Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape" and an explanation of Marie Ponsot's redaction of the form, the "tritina." From the Academy of American Poets.

• Poetry Form - The Sestina.

  http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/sestina.htm
  A description and explanation of the form, with examples and a step-by-step guide to writing one.

• Sestina

  http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/formsofverse/reports2000/page9.html
  Description and examples from a course taught by Alberto Rios.

• Sestina

  http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/sestina.html
  A brief definition and description from a course at the University of Pennsylvania.

• Sestina

  http://www.eliteskills.com/analysis_poetry/Sestina_by_Elizabeth_Bishop_analysis.php
  By Elizabeth Bishop. Includes readers' comments.

• Sestina

  http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/sestina
  By Algernon Charles Swinburne. Unusual in its use of rhyme.

• Sestina in the Computer Age

  http://www.sonic.net/~scotts/sestina.html
  By Scott Reid.

• Sestina of the Tramp-Royal

  http://www.daypoems.net/poems/1856.html
  By Rudyard Kipling, in Cockney dialect. Part of the DayPoems Poetry Collection edited by Timothy Bovee.

• Sestina: Altaforte

  http://unix.cc.wmich.edu/~cooneys/poems/Pound.altaf.html
  By Ezra Pound. Perhaps the most famous modern use of the form.

• Sestinas for Free

  http://www.poemsforfree.com/sestinas.html
  A collection by Nicholas Gordon that can be used free for any personal or non-commercial purpose.

• Sestinas: Browse, or Build Your Own

  http://dilute.net/sestinas/
  A template for creating sestinas.

• Some Thoughts on Sestinas

  http://www.writing-world.com/poetry/schimel4.shtml
  By Lawrence Schimel, with a sestina by Joe Haldeman.

• The Krenek Sestinas

  http://www.eclectica.org/v2n2/mager_krenek_intro.html
  By Don Mager. A set of six related sestinas both echoing and about the music and life of Ernst Krenek, a serial composer. Part of Eclectica Magazine v2n2.

• The Sestina Page

  http://webspace.webring.com/people/ju/um_11877/sestina.htm
  A Web site devoted to the sestina form, with a large online archive of examples. Going beyond the extensive home page requires the reader to join "Yahoo Groups."

• The Shrinking Lonesome Sestina

  http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2001/10/shrinking-lonesome-sestina-miller.html
  By Miller Williams. Part of a larger site called The Wondering Minstrels.

 

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