The Poetry Forms Series: Sestina
- Julie Haase
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
What is a Sestina?
Brace yourself! The sestina is a highly complex thirty-nine–line poem (thirty-nine!) that requires a great deal of thought and time to understand, let alone to master! It has six sestets (six-line stanzas) and one ending tercet (three-line stanza) called an envoi (yes, the sestina is French).
The sestina does not use a rhyming pattern; instead, it uses repeating end words, also known as teleutons, and each end word repeats several times. In fact, the six end words used in the first stanza are the only end words used in the entire poem! The good news? No meter or specific rhythm required!
Sestina Features
While the end words, or teleutons, from the first sestet are indeed also used in the other stanzas, they are not used in the same order—that would be too easy! Each stanza has a different order for the end words, but the order is predictable, albeit head-spinning. The envoi is handled a bit differently from the sestets, as you’ll see below.
Sestets
The chart below shows the order of the teleutons (again, those are the end words for each line) in the six sestets. The numbers refer to the teleutons as they appear in the first sestet. For example, 2 represents the teleuton for line two in the first sestet. It also ends line four of the second sestet, line five of the third sestet, etc.
Note a couple important things about the order of the teleutons:
As shown in the chart above, the line six teleuton always carries over to become the line one teleuton in the sestet that follows it. For example, the last line of sestet one ends with teleuton #6, and the first line of sestet two ends with teleuton #6.
The order of teleutons from sestet to sestet follows a pattern similar to a pendulum that’s slowing down: outermost right to outermost left and back and forth until it gets to the last two words in the middle:
It’s kinda pretty, if a little dizzying!
Envoi
Now, what about that envoi? How do those six teleutons work in a three-line stanza? Well, all six need to be used, but you have leeway here. The only real rule is that three of the teleutons must end the three lines and the other three teleutons must appear within the three lines.
For example, the most common combinations for the end words are 531 and 135 with 2, 4, and 6 appearing in the middle of those lines (but there’s no rule that says you have to do it this way!).
Example
Feeling a bit overwhelmed? Let’s look at an example.
A Miracle for Breakfast
Elizabeth Bishop
[1] At six o'clock we were waiting for coffee,
[2] waiting for coffee and the charitable crumb
[3] that was going to be served from a certain balcony
[4] —like kings of old, or like a miracle.
[5] It was still dark. One foot of the sun
[6] steadied itself on a long ripple in the river.
[6] The first ferry of the day had just crossed the river.
[1] It was so cold we hoped that the coffee
[5] would be very hot, seeing that the sun
[2] was not going to warm us; and that the crumb
[4] would be a loaf each, buttered, by a miracle.
[3] At seven a man stepped out on the balcony.
[3] He stood for a minute alone on the balcony
[6] looking over our heads toward the river.
[4] A servant handed him the makings of a miracle,
[1] consisting of one lone cup of coffee
[2] and one roll, which he proceeded to crumb,
[5] his head, so to speak, in the clouds—along with the sun.
[5] Was the man crazy? What under the sun
[3] was he trying to do, up there on his balcony!
[2] Each man received one rather hard crumb,
[6] which some flicked scornfully into the river,
[1] and, in a cup, one drop of the coffee.
[4] Some of us stood around, waiting for the miracle.
[4] I can tell what I saw next; it was not a miracle.
[5] A beautiful villa stood in the sun
[1] and from its doors came the smell of hot coffee.
[3] In front, a baroque white plaster balcony
[6] added by birds, who nest along the river,
[2] —I saw it with one eye close to the crumb—
[2] and galleries and marble chambers. My crumb
[4] my mansion, made for me by a miracle,
[6] through ages, by insects, birds, and the river
[5] working the stone. Every day, in the sun,
[3] at breakfast time I sit on my balcony
[1] with my feet up, and drink gallons of coffee.
[1] We licked up the crumb [2] and swallowed the coffee.
[5] A window across the river [6] caught the sun
[3] as if the miracle [4] were working, on the wrong balcony.
Variations on the Sestina
A few variations have gotten people’s attention over the years. I’m not sure I would try all of these!
Pentina
Instead of six sestets and a tercet, the pentina has five cinquains (five-line stanzas) and a couplet (two-line stanza). Learn more here.
Tritina
We’re getting smaller and smaller… The tritina has three tercets and a one-line envoi. The form was created by Marie Ponsot. Check out her tritina “Living Room.”
Decaying Sestina
This one starts out like normal and then gets smaller and smaller as the poem progresses. For the ultimate example, check out the decaying sestina written by Lawrence Schimel.
Double Sestina
As if the original weren’t hard enough, how about twelve sestets and the usual three-line envoi? Or better yet—how about twelve twelve-line stanzas and a six-line envoi? This second version can be seen in Algernon Charles Swinburne’s poem “The Complaint of Lisa.” (You'll notice Swinburne split his last twelve-line stanza into two six-line stanzas. Poets... :)
Tips for Creating Sestinas
It’s all about those end words…
Choose Concrete Words
Abstractions can be difficult to work with in the sestina, so in most cases, concrete words that reflect what someone can see, hear, touch, etc. are better bets. Notice all the concrete teleutons in Elizabeth Bishop’s poem above. One, maybe two, abstract words might be a fun challenge and open up some interesting concepts, but more than that will likely just make your job much more difficult than necessary.
Skip Articles, Verbs (Mostly), and Adverbs
Nouns and, to some extent, adjectives are the words that work best as teleutons. Articles (a, an, the) would work but are extremely boring. Verbs, like abstract words, can work now and then but are trickier to deal with. Adverbs, as per usual, are telling words that should simply be avoided whenever possible, regardless of the type of poem you’re writing.
Make Them Flexible
As much as possible, choose words that have flexible meanings and/or can be used in multiple ways. By shifting the meaning of the words as you go, you make the poem more interesting and pull readers in more because they become curious about how you’re going to adjust each teleuton as you go. It also helps you delve deeper into the theme of the poem, which is really the whole point anyway.
Make the Poem Evolve
Sestinas are most effective as explorations of a theme in which the ideas meld and grow and evolve as the poem progresses. This is another reason why having flexible teleutons is so important. Once you decide what your poem will be about, you want to explore that topic in a slightly different way in each stanza and then wrap up the theme in the final envoi. So first and foremost, choose a topic/theme that can evolve as you go, then make that happen.
Your Challenge
Choose a topic you’re passionate about—music, family, socio-political issues, education, equality, the environment, etc.—and then drill down into a specific theme within that topic. For example, the healing power of music. Then come up with a scenario that can illustrate that theme, like a child rising out of poverty through music. Finally, come up with six words that relate to the theme: music, poverty, fingers, sound, heart, power. These are your teleutons.
Don’t worry if the initial six words don’t work out. Once you start creating the poem, you may find other words that work better.
Explore the theme one stanza at a time. Be sure that the poem evolves and the teleutons shift in meaning as the poem grows. Then wrap up the scenario and the theme in the three-line envoi.
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