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Sestina

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A fixed form of six sestets with lexical repetition and an envoi.

Explore this topic in depth (1)

The Sestina — A sestina is built from six end-words that return in a changing order across six stanzas and a brief closing envoi. Its pattern can look daunting on paper, but it is best understood as an audible cycle: familiar words arriving in new emotional and grammatical surroundings.

Detailed Definition
A sestina is a complex 39-line form consisting of six sestets and a three-line envoi, where the same six end-words recur in a rotating pattern across stanzas; developed by troubadours and mastered by poets like Elizabeth Bishop, it explores obsession, memory, and linguistic permutation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Sestina: Elizabeth Bishop’s "Sestina" repeats end-words (house, grandmother, child, stove, almanac, tears) in rotating order across six stanzas and a final tercet.
Additional Notes
Sestina: A complex 39-line form with six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoi; uses lexical repetition of six end-words in a rotating pattern; demands technical skill and thematic ingenuity.
Also Known As
Six-stanza form Thirty-nine-line poem Sestina pattern End-word poem Sextine
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