Sestina

A sestina is a poem of six six-line stanzas and a three-line closing stanza, in which the same six words end the lines of every stanza in a shifting, fixed order.

A sestina is a poem that cannot stop circling its own six words. Choose six, say house, river, mother, iron, winter and light, and each one has to end a line in every stanza, in a different place each time.

The pattern

Number the end words 1 to 6. The first stanza ends 1 2 3 4 5 6. Each later stanza follows by taking the last word first, then the first, then the next-to-last, then the second, and so on.

• Stanza 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6
• Stanza 2: 6 1 5 2 4 3
• Stanza 3: 3 6 4 1 2 5
• Stanza 4: 5 3 2 6 1 4
• Stanza 5: 4 5 1 3 6 2
• Stanza 6: 2 4 6 5 3 1
• Envoi (three lines): the six words packed two to a line.

The form was invented by the twelfth-century troubadour Arnaut Daniel. Elizabeth Bishop's "Sestina" and Sir Philip Sidney's early English examples are often studied.

Why it works

Because the words keep returning, the poet has to find new meanings for them each time. That pressure often produces strange, revealing turns. The best sestinas pick end words with several senses, so each return opens a new angle.

Why it matters to a writer or editor

The sestina trains patience and range. The editing question is whether the six words are strong enough to carry thirty-nine lines. Weak words such as "is" or "the" make the pattern invisible and the poem limp. Check that each return is doing new work, as in a good villanelle, and not repeating the same sense.

Read an example

Read an example: Rudyard Kipling opens his sestina in a Cockney voice, and its six end words return in a shifting order through every stanza.

Speakin' in general, I 'ave tried 'em all

Rudyard Kipling, "Sestina of the Tramp-Royal", 1896

For shorter poems to read first, try the Bossfeed daily poem archive.

Frequently asked questions

How does the end-word order change in a sestina?

Each new stanza takes the end words of the one before in a spiral: the last word comes first, then the first, then the second to last, then the second, and so on. After six stanzas every word has held every position.

What is the envoi?

The final three-line stanza of a sestina. It uses all six end words, two to a line, one inside the line and one at the end.

Does a sestina rhyme?

No. The repeated end words do the work that rhyme would, so the poem relies on repetition instead of matching sounds.