sestinas
Six-stanza compositions
Sestinas are poems following a strict form: six six-line stanzas plus a three-line envoi, with the same six end-words rotating through each stanza in a fixed pattern.
The form demands ingenuity—the poet must find fresh contexts for the repeated words.
She spent months perfecting her sestina before submitting it.
Act of redoing
- permutationArrangement in specific order
- cycleRepeating sequence of events
- rotationTurning on an axis
- patternRecurring arrangement or template
constraint · envoi · spiral · recursive · systematic · interlocking · mathematical · formal
Repeating-refrain verse structure
- rondeauFrench poem with refrain
- balladePoem with repeated refrain
- canzoneItalian lyric poem
- envoiConcluding stanza of dedication
lexical · spiral · permutation · tercet · troubadour
Arranged elements forming whole
- wordplayVerbal wit techniques
- variationChange from a norm
- constraintLimiting condition or rule
- obsessionPersistent, intrusive preoccupation
meditation · circling · weaving · echo · refrain · revision · drafting · mastery
Persistent, intrusive preoccupation
- memoryMind's retention capacity
- lossBeing without something
- longingIntense, persistent desire
- returnGo back again
cycles · time · grief · love · meditation · haunting · persistence · rumination
repetition
Act of redoing
- permutationArrangement in specific order
- cycleRepeating sequence of events
- rotationTurning on an axis
pattern · constraint · envoi · spiral · recursive · systematic · interlocking · mathematical · formal · metered
villanelle
Repeating-refrain verse structure
envoi · lexical · spiral · permutation · tercet · troubadour
composition
Arranged elements forming whole
- wordplayVerbal wit techniques
- variationChange from a norm
- constraintLimiting condition or rule
obsession · meditation · circling · weaving · echo · refrain · revision · drafting · mastery · difficulty
obsession
Persistent, intrusive preoccupation
return · cycles · time · grief · love · meditation · haunting · persistence · rumination · yearning
sestinasfree verse
Poetry without fixed structure
prose poems · automatic writing · beat poetry · stream of consciousness · blank verse
sestinasdoggerel
Trivial, clumsy verse
couplets · haiku · nursery rhymes · found poetry · limericks