Comments on: read write prompt #63: sestina, randomly

By: Kristen McHenry

Kristen McHenry — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:20:05 +0000

Okay, here goes nothing:

http://thegoodtypist.blogspot.com/

By: Kristen McHenry

Kristen McHenry — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:16:20 +0000

I will be posting my own sestina soon, but in the meantime, I came across a terrific site that has really great sestinas. I hope it’s okay to post the link here. Also, there is a site that lays out the pattern very nicely, so I am going to link that one, too:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/sestinas/

and, for the layout of a sestina:

http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/sestina.htm

I have been playing around with this form a bit, and I actually really like it, as grueling as it is. Lately words have come to me in repetitions, so this form has been fun to experiment with.

By: stories from the surface « Words that sing

stories from the surface « Words that sing — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:38:57 +0000

[...] tough challenge this week from read write poem. As if writing my first sestina wasn’t tough enough, the crucial six words that repeat at the [...]

By: Sestina « Watermaid’s Weblog

Sestina « Watermaid’s Weblog — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:19:11 +0000

[...] one with the following constraints: I’ve taken six nouns, randomly chosen as suggested by Tom and I’ve attempted to write something intelligible. The reason I don’t like sestinas is [...]

By: Carole

Carole — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:17:02 +0000

Tom, what I meant was that for me many sestinas are all form and no content. They are not to my taste. However, I've accepted the challenge and written a sestina with six nouns from watchoutforsnakes. Beyond the Swamp

By: Tiel Aisha Ansari

Tiel Aisha Ansari — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:53:55 +0000

Apparently so is Watchout4Snakes, cause it gave me four nouns in a row that make good verbs without any alteration: brush and dig are two of them.

*shrug*

By: Philip Thrift

Philip Thrift — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:36:05 +0000

I’m all in favor of nounifying verbs and the verbification of nouns … within limits of course.

By: Vlogging Verses: Two Sestinas | fallen verses

Vlogging Verses: Two Sestinas | fallen verses — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:17:45 +0000

[...] Sestina for No One and Sestina that I wrote a while ago, but since I have a prompt up over at Read Write Poem about sestinas, I thought I would kick off this vlogging experiment with a reading of those [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 21:49:07 +0000

Gautami, I’m looking forward to seeing your second sestina

By: gautami tripathy

gautami tripathy — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:51:04 +0000

I have written only one sestina till date. I know it was not easy for me especially as I chose difficult words from the dictionary. To challenge my brain. I did not change the form of the words at all. The words I chose were: query, compeers, ostentations, fiasco, avocation, solidarity.

I don’t say my effort was perfect but it did give me some thing to think about. I was thinking of writing another one when this prompt came up.

I will try to stick to form as much as I can. I love to challenge myself thus.

If anyone is interested to read my previous effort, it is here:

http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com/2007/06/sestina-learning-from-life-poetry.html

Thanks Tom, for this exercise. I truly appreciate it.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:04:41 +0000

A reminder to everyone- the prompt is here to follow or not, as you wish. If it isn’t working for you, don’t feel you have to struggle with it. It’s supposed to be a jumping off point for your own poetic explorations this week. Maybe this isn’t somewhere you want to explore… no big thing.

Watchout4Snakes was just one example of a random word generator. I happen to use it a lot, but I also use magnetic poetry kits and draw words from a cup. The idea with the prompt was to force some really strange connections between the words to see what can happen. If some other random word generator is better for you, be it another web site or throwing darts at a dictionary, go for it!

All poetic form is artifice. All of them. I think you could go so far as to say the entirety of Art is artifice and you would not be wrong.

Homophonic words would be straying from the traditional definition of a sestina. If they work for you the only thing to be aware of is other people might tell you that what you wrote is not a sestina. If you don’t care about what other people say, write whatever you like. Really, write whatever you like.

Tiel: why nouns? Because six nouns is about the most pure and most tortuous way to write a sestina. Verbs or words that can be used in different parts of speech make sestinas much easier to write, I agree. But I made an arbitrary decision for the prompt. Again, if it doesn’t work for you, no big thing.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:31:08 +0000

The random word generator at watchout4snakes seems to have a very strange idea of what a noun is.
Or at least, it doesn’t match what I was taught in school – for instance, it gave me “boring” and “studying”. I may try this prompt, but I’m not sure I’ll use the random word generator, I think a sestina is hard enough as it is.

By: Carole

Carole — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:23:26 +0000

I agree that Elizabeth Bishop's Sestina is an excellent example of the form. Not only does she use six nouns, but she also uses simple everyday language. This poem also has something to say: it tell a story. My objection to many sestinas is that they are mere artifice.

By: Carole

Carole — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:55:00 +0000

I’m no expert at sestinas. I find the rhyme scheme of a villanelle much less tortuous than being restricted to six end words over 39 lines. In addition to words that can be used as nouns and verbs, what about words that can be spelt differently like dear and deer?

By: Tiel Aisha Ansari

Tiel Aisha Ansari — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:06:21 +0000

Why just nouns? Verbs work really well for sestinas– actually what works even better are words that can be used both as nouns and as verbs, eg. run (run in a stocking, run a race), or even adjectives (runny egg yolks)!