sestina

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A verse form first used by the Provençal troubadours, consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy. The end words of the first stanza are repeated in varied order as end words in the other stanzas and also recur in the envoy.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A poem in fixed form, borrowed from the French, and said to have been invented by the Provençal troubadour Arnaut Daniel (thirteenth century). It consisted originally of six stanzas of six unrimed lines, with a final triplet or half-stanza, also unrimed—all the lines being of the same length. The terminal words of stanzas 2 to 6 were the same as those of stanza 1, but arranged differently; and they were repeated in the triplet or envoy, partly at the end and partly in the middle of the lines. The modern sestina is written on two or three rimes, and the formula for a two-rimed sestina is thus given in the “Vers Français et leur Prosodie” of the best French authority, M. de Gramont: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; 6, 1, 5, 2, 4, 3; 3, 6, 4, 1, 2, 5; 5, 3, 2, 6, 1, 4; 4, 5, 1, 3, 6, 2; 2, 4, 6, 5, 3, 1; triplet 2, 4, 6 at the end, and 1, 3, 5 at the beginning of the lines. In stanza 1, lines 1, 3, and 4 rime, and 2, 5, and 6 rime. Sestinas were written in Italy by Dante and Petrarch, in Spain and Portugal by Cervantes and Camoens, and in England by Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649). Mr. Swinburne (in “Poems and Ballads,” 2d ser.) has achieved a double sestina.

Wiktionary

1. n. a highly structured poem consisting of six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet or envoy, for a total of thirty-nine lines.