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Lyric Poetry · English Literature

What is the intricate structural design of a sestina, a lyric form developed by medieval troubadours?

  1. Thirty-nine lines: six end-words rotate through six stanzas, ending in a three-line envoi
  2. A single line of one hundred words with no punctuation or capital letters
  3. Six stanzas where every line rhymes with the poem's opening word
  4. A twenty-four line lyric in rhyming couplets alternating English and Latin
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Correct answer: Thirty-nine lines: six end-words rotate through six stanzas, ending in a three-line envoi

The sestina is an exceptionally complex, unrhymed thirty-nine-line lyric form. It consists of six six-line stanzas followed by a three-line concluding stanza known as an envoi or tornada. Instead of rhyming, the form mandates that the six specific words that end the lines of the first stanza must rotate in a strict mathematical sequence (lexical repetition) as the line-endings of the remaining stanzas, culminating with all six words packed into the final envoi.

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