sestina
a poem of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy, originally without rhyme, in which each stanza repeats the end words of the lines of the first stanza, but in different order, the envoy using the six words again, three in the middle of the lines and three at the end.
Origin of sestina
1- Also called sextain.
Words Nearby sestina
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use sestina in a sentence
That it was used and admired by Dante and Petrarch, alone gives the sestina a royal precedence over all of the other forms.
The sestina, a very elaborate canzonet, was invented in Provence and borrowed by the Italians.
The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory | George SaintsburyThe common form of the sestina has six stanzas of six lines each, with a tercet at the end.
English Verse | Raymond MacDonald Alden, Ph.D.Naught else have I afforded you, madame, save very anciently a sestina.
Chivalry | James Branch CabellFrom Italy have come, besides the ottava rima and the sonnet, two other metrical forms, the sestina and the terza rima.
The Principles of English Versification | Paull Franklin Baum
British Dictionary definitions for sestina
/ (sɛˈstiːnə) /
an elaborate verse form of Italian origin, normally unrhymed, consisting of six stanzas of six lines each and a concluding tercet. The six final words of the lines in the first stanza are repeated in a different order in each of the remaining five stanzas and also in the concluding tercet: Also called: sextain
Origin of sestina
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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