Elegy, An Italian Sestina...

One afternoon in college I was sitting in the library on the east side of campus mindlessly flicking through the tissue-thin pages of another Anthology of English Literature, Volume 400-and-something-or-other. Barely minutes before I fell asleep in a puddle of my own drool something caught my eye. It was a poem titled Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop. As I read the words I couldn’t quite understand why it called to me so strongly. When I finished reading the poem, I continued to the footnote positioned just below it near the bottom of the page. The footnote explained that the poem was something called an Italian Sestina. “The Italian Sestina,” it continued, “is regarded as one of, if not, the most difficult poetic form in the English language.” I was hooked; and immediately challenged to write my own Italian sestina.

What makes the Italian Sestina so very difficult (and therefore rare) is the poem’s unique and complicated structure. Called lexical repetition, the Italian Sestina consists of 6 stanzas of 6 lines each (sestet), and an envoy consisting of 3 lines (tercet or couplet). The final word in each line of the first sestet begins with the obvious order 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. The next sestet rotates the final words from each line of the prior sestet according to a fixed pattern to end each line of the new sestet. The pattern is as follows:

                             (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)                      – End words of lines in first sestet.

                             (6) (1) (5) (2) (4) (3)                      – End words of lines in second sestet.

                             (3) (6) (4) (1) (2) (5)                      – End words of lines in third sestet.

                             (5) (3) (2) (6) (1) (4)                      – End words of lines in fourth sestet.

                             (4) (5) (1) (3) (6) (2)                      – End words of lines in fifth sestet.

                             (2) (4) (6) (5) (3) (1)                      – End words of lines in sixth sestet.

                             (2, 1) (4, 3) (6, 5)                           – Middle and end words of lines in tercet.

                             Or (1, 3, 5)                                      – Or End words as a couplet.

This is a vertical, graphical representation of the rotation of the final words in each sestet (numbered across the top) and the end words denoted vertically:

As you can see this style is very challenging. Since that day in college, I’ve written many poems in the style of the Italian Sestina… here is one that is close to my heart…

It was written in autumn after a visit to my great-grandfather’s grave on a crisp, blustery Ohio day. Leaves blew across the mounds of the graveyard grounds and the wind spoke in whispers…

Elegy

Over the beauty of the grassy plain

And through the stain of swirled marble

There blows a wind so lovingly sweet

It summons my thoughts and memories

To a time when I thought I’d spend the rest

Of my secrets with you, sweet friend.

Upon these grounds trod many a friend

Whose love and friendship proved so plain

Though to a higher rank obtained, like all the rest

I see your name set down in stony marble.

Carved in grooves within which our memories

Are formed and etched and firmly set so sweet.

And Underneath that cold, lean, sweet

Earth that teams with life my friend

There grow such tailored memories

Of you and me that blow across this plain

They speak out boldly through that marble

Underneath whose voice you rest.

I need not see nor read the rest

Of styled, stony testaments. Not so sweet

As to match your sonant, chiseled words of marble.

Although I know they are, too, a friend

Of friends who stood upon this plain

And who also felt this wind that summons memories.

Now I can feel these memories

Becoming fears and forming seas that come to rest

Upon my cheeks and splash upon this plain.

I never knew that Death could be so bitter sweet

As now as he has thieved from me my friend

Now known to all the world as only sculpted marble

But rest you well, fond friend of stone, marble

Over your Earthly home and in my memories.

For in your grave you remain my friend;

A friendship that will never rest

Never break nor ever wane as long as sweet

I hear your voice upon this plotted plain.

So now repose unto this grassy, marble plain

Here through memories kept so fresh; caress the sweet

Call of old remembrance, and rest, my old friend, rest…

 

It’s undeniable that the mystique of the Italian Sestina lies in the fact that the same six words end every line of every stanza. I had a lot of fun writing this poem and hope you had the same enjoyment reading it.