When I sat down to write a sestina, the hardest part was figuring out exactly what form I was supposed to be following. My teacher didn't explain it very well and the internet didn't really have very good definitions. So here it is, I figured it out and put it here for you!

A sestina is a poem that has a very ridged grid. There are six - 6 line stanzas and it ends with a 3 line envoy. That's not all though folks, here's the tricky part. The end words that you chose for each line of the first stanza MUST be repeated as the end words of each of the other stanzas. Is that all? Nope! They must be repeated in a pattern. I'll get to that.

The envoy contains all 6 words , three of them are buried and 3 are at the end of the lines. Here, let me see if I can help you a little using my poem as an example.

I chose: day, sun, breeze, face, time, dreams - as the end words for my first stanza. So that is 1,2,3,4,5,6. The next stanza repeats the words in the following pattern: 6,1,5,2,4,3. so my second stanza has: dream, day, time, sun, face, breeze. There is an actual pattern to how these go but I don't know how to explain it here without drawing it out. I'll put the full pattern at the bottom of this.

The envoy, like I said, uses all 6 words but in 3 lines. There is a set pattern to this as well. The envoy must be: 2 and 5, 4 and 3, 6 and 1. Using my envoy as an example:

"So now, with you and the sun I spend my time the distance between us I had to face is gone with the breeze and now I fulfill a brilliant waking dream with each passing day"

At least none of this has to rhyme!!

Okay so by now you kind of understand how this works. It's best to chose your end words without keeping in mind that you're writing a sestina. But it is also best to chose words that can have many meanings and be used as images or metaphors. Probably ending a line with a word like "Cheerios" isn't the best idea. Although the end words can be from the middle of an enjammed line and can be abstract such as ''love'' and ''fear'' or ''heaven.'' Of course it is up to you! One other trick that you can do is to use the plural or singular version of the word like : ''dream,'' and ''dreams.'' ALSO! One word I chose was ''day,'' yet I used ''today,'' and ''yesterday'' because it still ends with ''day.'' You can kind of maneuver around the strict pattern.

So here goes the pattern:
...one
...two
...three
...four
...five
...six

...six
...one
...five
...two
...four
...three

...three
...six
...four
...one
...two
...five

...five
...three
...two
...six
...one
...four

...four
...five
...one
...three
...six
...two

...two
...four
...six
...five
...three
...one

...two ...five
...four ...three
...six ...one



Good luck to you if you decide to subject yourself to the horror of writing one of these!! No really, it can be fun. Although most writers see this as nothing more than a writing exercise.