Sestinas?

Sestinas? by Emily Willoughby

What is the point of a sestina? Is its purpose not to rhyme? Any other poem revolves around sound, Or a message meant to be pleasing. But no, sestinas have a hidden pattern, a web trapping  the unfortunate writer.

A predicament intended for the writer, Is the subject of the sestina. Guided by only a complicated pattern, Hindering beauty by forbidding rhyme. How does one find a topic that is pleasing, When the last importance is its sound?

What is the point of reading if not for the sound? <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">I'm disappointed that the writer <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Is so bored that this format is pleasing. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">That out of all poems the one picked is a sestina. <span style="color: #c0504d; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Not even free verse or found poems without a rhyme <span style="color: #c0504d; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Have so little feeling as what comes from this pattern <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Not a truthfully challenging pattern, <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Just undetectable by sound. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Robotic and detached, missing true rhyme, <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">I'm ashamed to be the writer <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Of a <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">positively prosaic poem <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;"> such as a sestina <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Because no one I know finds them pleasing.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">What is there to find pleasing, <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Other than the words used in the pattern? <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Why would one write a sestina <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">If there were options with far better sound? <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">I speak as an amateur writer <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Who would rather try to rhyme.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">At least poems that have rhyme <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Can be clever, melodious, and pleasing. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">But honestly, what writer <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Has the need to follow such a set pattern? <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">At least create a poem with a useful sound <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">That is sweeter than a sestina.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">No offense to the irregular writer who cares nothing for poetic sound, <span style="color: #c0504d; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">But I prefer a rhyme in my poems, which in a sestina is not present <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">. <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">A lonely pattern lingering <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">, for a purpose that might be pleasing.