Sestina Sonnet

The Sestina Sonnet is written in ten-syllable lines (usually iambic pentameter) and is structured with three stanzas; three quatrains(four-line stanzas) and a concluding couplet(a two-line stanza). The interesting thing about the Sestina Sonnet is that it actually doesn’t rhyme. It retains the Sestina qualities by repeating the end-words of lines throughout the piece.

The four words that end the lines of the first stanza, end the lines of the other two stanzas, in a different order each time. The last stanza, uses two of those words per line, with one in the middle and one at the end of the line.

Example poem

Tell Me of Your Anger in Whispers (Sestina Sonnet)

Don’t start a message with an angry word

for voice will carry tones that are not right

for saying what is needed to be heard.

An angry start can last until the night.

Daytime travails get pushed away at night

and ‘ere we sleep all problems should be heard.

Tell me I’ve goofed without an angry word.

We’ll fix it, regardless of who is right.

Experience shows that you’re usually right

unless you misunderstood deed or word.

A certain magic when we talk at night

yields solutions from voices that are heard.

You will be heard and things will work out right.

Tell me at night by way of whispered word.

© Lawrencealot – 2012

Visual Templates ( I have included one for Trochaic meter too)

Sestina Sonnet - Iambic

Sestina Sonnet - Trochaic

Elfmath Sonnet

This is a sonnet form invented by Jose Rizal M. Reyes of the Philippines.
Very Sestina-like.
The defining characteristic is that you must use repeating end words in the rhyme scheme of any existing sonnet.
It is stanzaic, consisting of three quatrains and a couplet
Or                                           two quatrains and two tercets
It is written in iambic pentameter.
It uses WORD refrains in every stanza.
 Example poem
To Write an Elfmath Sonnet
To write an Elfmath Sonnet poets know
that they will never have to search for rhymes.
A word will rhyme with itself, that we know;
repeating words (required), will give you rhymes.
This sonnet makes demands that we use words
To end a line, so that they may repeat
because by rule, they must! Repeating words-
the specs define just where they must repeat.
But since the author specified the choice
of options that now number only three
we can’t let complex rhyming be our choice.
We’ll rhyme seven, or two or four- not three.
Since every time we end with couplet rhyme
I’m glad that I enjoy said couplet rhyme.
© Lawrencealot – February 25, 2014
Visual Template
Note: I created the template and poem when I thought the word
Pattern Jose set forth were requirements.  They are not, they are
Only examples.  You may choose your own word pattern.