Devin+2014

= 5/7 of a Sestina on Writing a Sestina about Sestinas =

You need to find a meaningful arrangement of words. You can criticize its lack of rhyme Or its thirty-nine lines. But make sure you adhere to its pattern. Although it may be silly, You must follow the rules of this unusual poem.

While poking fun at the poem, notice that you still follow its rules of the words, and what you consider to be silly still governs the rhyme that you use and the pattern that you follow in each of the lines.

You are still controlled by the lines and all of the restrictions of this atypical poem. Follow the pattern as you ridicule it with words in the very same fashion of rhyme that you proclaim as so silly.

Forget what I said, sestinas sure are silly A poem of thirty-nine lines that is unable to rhyme surely is a shabby case of a poem. The sestina contains words in no easily-ascertainable pattern

but to the few who master the pattern. I agree that it is silly, that the words often carry no purpose other than to fill up the lines, but in the end, it is still a poem and arcane meaning can still be conveyed through its ridiculed rhyme.