pathetic.org members may categorize their work so that visitors to the site can find a particular type of poetry more easily. Because a piece may fit in more than one category, you may come across a particular poem several times. Whether you are looking for poetry written in a particular style, or a poem on a certain topic, you can browse through the categories listed here to find a variety of works that meet the criteria.
Sestina [sess-TEEN-uh]: A fixed form consisting of six 6-line (usually unrhymed) stanzas in which the end words of the first stanza recur as end words of the following five stanzas in a successively rotating order and as the middle and end words of each of the lines of a concluding envoi in the form of a tercet. The usual ending word order for a sestina is as follows:
First stanza, 1- 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 Second stanza, 6 - 1 - 5 - 2 - 4 - 3 Third stanza, 3 - 6 - 4 - 1 - 2 - 5 Fourth stanza, 5 - 3 - 2 - 6 - 1 - 4 Fifth stanza, 4 - 5 - 1 - 3 - 6 - 2 Sixth stanza, 2 - 4 - 6 - 5 - 3 - 1 Concluding tercet: middle of first line - 2, end of first line - 5 middle of second line - 4, end of second line - 3 middle of third line - 6, end of third line 1
