| August 20 Workshop Information Moderator: Ann Camy |
Poetry form: Sestina | List of all workshops |
The Sestina
The sestina is an Italian poetry form developed in Provencal by Troubadours. It has a circular, spiral quality to it. It goes round and round. Ezra Pound described it as “a thin sheet of flame folding and infolding upon itself.” Marilyn Hacker described it: “A camera on a rotating boom, /six words spin slowly round and pan the room.”
The sestina has no rhyme but achieves unity by repeating end words in lines according to a strict pattern; it consists of six 6-linestanzas and a 3-linestanza at the end. The final 3-line stanza, called an envoi or tornado, acts as a sendoff or a postscript, for the rest of the poem. Some poets choose to delete the envoi.
The original sestina has a very strict rotating pattern of end words in stanzas. To achieve this end, the poet begins by numbering the end words in the first six lines:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th |
| 1 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 5 end |
| 2 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 end |
| 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 1 end |
| 4 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 2, 4, |
| 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 3 | & 6 |
| 6 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | inside |
Notice that the first line in the second stanza ends with the same word as the last word in the first stanza. The second line in the second stanza ends with the last word in the first line of the first stanza; the third line in the second stanza ends with the last word in the fifth line of the first stanza; the fourth line in the second stanza ends with the last word in the second line of the first stanza; the fifth line of second stanza ends with the last word of the fourth line of the first stanza, and the fifth line of the second stanza ends with the last word of the of the third line. The pattern rotates from there:
1,2,3,4,5,6 6,1,5,2,4,3 3,6,4,1,2,5 5,3,2,6,1,4 4,5,1,3,6,2 2,4,6,5,3,1
Today’s sestinas don’t always follow that strict pattern. What’s important is that the end words in one stanza never fall in the same line as the other stanzas.
The sestina does not have a set meter. Some poets write sestinas in iambic pentameter (five poetic feet, 10syllables per line, beginning with one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable: – / – / – / – / – /). Others use the syllabic pattern:
8-11-11-11-11-11 in each stanza. Free verse sestinas are also popular. Some poets alter the end words from stanza to stanza by adding or deleting suffixes. Poet Arnaut Daniel was the first to use this deviation. Poet Donald Justice alters end words each time they recur in his sestina “The Metamorphosis.” He also omits the envoi. The double sestina
Has twelve 6-line stanzas, using the same six end words followed by an envoi.
The Sestina 2
Examples:
Sestina by Arnaut Daniel (12th century: translated by John Drury)
The firm resolve that has entered
my heart cannot be ripped out by beak or nail
of flatterers who gab away their souls jabber
I don’t dare batter them with stick or rod to batter
alone, without the aid of any uncle,
and so I’ll love my love in grove or chamber.
When I recollect the chamber
where—my loss too—I know that no man enters
(and everyone’s more strict than brother or uncle), all are
none of my parts is still, not even a nail,
just like a boy about to feel the rod— male youth
I fear that she might overwhelm my soul. young soul
May I be hers, body not soul,
so she’d agree to hide me in her chamber!
It strikes a blow to my heart, more than a rod’s,
that where she is this servant may not enter.
I’ll stay with her, close as flesh and nails, as close
ignoring the reproach of friend or uncle.
The sister of my uncle sweet sister
I don’t love nearly as much—upon my soul!
If she allowed me, close as fingernail as close
to finger, I’d advance into her chamber.
I’d bow to love that in my heart has entered
sooner than heed a hard man’s flimsy rod. I’d
Since the flowering of the dry rod
and Adam propagating nephews and uncles, nephews,
I can’t believe the fine love that has entered
my heart has come before in body or soul.
Wherever she is, in plaza or chamber,
My body doesn’t stray the length of a nail.
And my body fastens with nails,
attached to her like bark on branching rod, a branching
for she is joy’s tower and palace and chamber, tower, palace
lessening my love for brother, parent or uncle; delete parent
The Sestina 3
in paradise, twice the joy for my soul two times r double
if any man who loves that well can enter.
Arnaut sends off his song of uncle and nail
to please the soul who arms him with a rod,
his Desire, with honor entering the chamber.
Note: “Desire” was a secret sign or “in” joke among the Troubadour poets, though
indecipherable now. It may refer to a lady.
“The Metamorphosis” (Donald Justice, 1925-2004)
Past Mr. Raven’s tavern
Up Cemetery Hill
Around by the Giant Oak
And Drowning Creek gone DRY
Into the Hunting Woods
And that was how he went
At his back the wind
Blowing out of heaven
And at his feet foul weeds
That it wake to hell
And scarcely could he DRAW
Breath and the ribs did ache
No rest got under the oak
Nor water for the wound
Yet kept the way and DREW
Home at length to haven
And the familiar hail
His key into the wards
Then owls cried out from the woods
And terror of that ilk
So that the bitch at heel
A little moaned and whined
As she some fit were having
That back her long legs DREW
Whereat his mouth stood DRY
And without any words
The Sestina 4
Despite his heart heaving
And tongue working to speak
Some name to cast the wonder
Straight from his heart whole
The bent he to the keyhole
Nor might his eyes withDRAW
The while the hall unwound
That thing which afterwards
No man should know or its like
Whether dead or living.
Envoi omitted above.
References:
Drury, John. the po-e-try dic-tion-ar-y, 2nd edition. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinatti,
OH: 2006, pp. 278-285.
Schaefer, Candace and Rick Diamond. The Creative Writing Guide. Longman, New
York, NY: 1998, pp. 131-133.
Wallace, Robert and Michelle Boisseau. Writing Poems, 4th edition. Harper Collins
College Publishers, New York, NY: 1966, pp.375-376.
Assignment:
I asked you to bring six nouns with you that you could use over and over at the ends of lines of stanzas. Now, I want you to come up with a subject and write two stanzas, using those six words to end the lines. You do not have to follow the strict pattern set forth above, but the same six words must end the six lines in both stanzas, and none of the end words can be in the same line in the second stanza that they were in the first stanza. This is the beginning of a sestina that you can finish on your own should you choose to do so. That is the challenge I am offering to you. We will share what we have written before leaving today.
Old Cowboy of Wilderness Ranch
By Ann L. Camy
The first time I journeyed up Turkey Creek Canyon into Wilderness Ranch,
I expected to meet, from high school days, a log lost, casual friend.
This was to be a reunion of sorts, time for us to catch up on 40 missing years.
To my surprise, I found a talented artisan, a woodworker and old cowboy,
living a solitary life, hermit like, in the sanctuary of a sylvan glen—
a crafter of gifts and signs, a shaggy looking wrangler of the mountain.
The valley seemed a healing place for him, home from a hard-lived life and years
on the run, so he said, to escape a controlling father. His magnificent mountain
retreat completely captivated me. I relished the solace I found in his glen
with its quiet, rugged beauty, entirely surrounding Wilderness Ranch.
It comforted my soul and he struck a ready chord in my heart, this friend,
when he invited me into his world, the quiet vale of a reclusive old cowboy.
From the first, he began to work his magic (a con) on me, rough cowboy.
I treasured the time we spent together, especially there at Wilderness Ranch,
where I could be alone with him in the peace of this oasis on the mountain.
He created wooden carvings, gave them to me. “From my heart,” said my friend.
He and the mountain offered me profound joy, the serenity I have sought for years.
I marveled at the hilly terrain on the ranch, a perfect backdrop for him in the glen.
His retreat became a haven for me, a place to relax with him in that beautiful glen,
a place where I could feel safe, at peace and at home with my unpolished cowboy.
I felt I could open myself and open my heart to him there at Wilderness Ranch.
My sojourns up to him filled a gap in my life that had remained empty through the years.
He showed me a quiet life and contentment there on that marvelous mountain.
Amazingly, all this transpired from my desire to seek him out, a “new” friend.
What began as a kind of lark for me—seeking to reconnect with a former friend—
became deeply hurtful. I was totally unprepared for this to happen in that lovely glen.
Whoever would have thought so long ago that I would be “taken in” by a cowboy
residing in the woods, a man who would dupe me into living with him on the mountain
and make me desire to remain there. What a surprise that the hermit at Wilderness Ranch
stirred my physical desires, which had lain dormant, just waiting, for years.
The time that lay ahead of us I wanted to spend with him on the mountain.
I had hoped our days and nights together would stretch into weeks, months, years,
enjoying each other and all the things I thought we had to share as special friends.
I anticipated we’d create many new and lasting memories, there in the rustic glen
as we felt more comfortable in our relationship (Ha!), professor and cowboy,
laughing, loving, having fun in our rugged, wondrous world at Wilderness Ranch.
I think of my foolishness. He was some friend, enticing me to Wilderness Ranch.
A reclusive, craggy cowboy, wanted only a caretaker for his final days in the glen.
I lost valuable time on the mountain, made mistakes I’ll never repeat in future years.