Sunday evening, Wendy McKay, remembering our TEX poetry contest two years ago in Vancouver, asked me to create something for this year's gathering. I must say that this shows that her taste in verse is every bit as suspect as her taste in operating systems ....
I have written a sestina. Those of you who are a few months (or maybe years) past your last creative writing class may need to be reminded what that is. Right?
A sestina is a 39-line poem, usually but not necessarily in iambic pentameter, comprised of six six-line verses and a three-line envoi. The gimmick is that each verse uses the same six words (or syllables--I cheated) to end the six lines. These words are permuted in a predetermined order. The same six words must show up in the envoi, also in a predetermined order. Those of you --both of you?-- who are interested can easily find much more information on the web.
You will appreciate that this form lends itself to verse whose artistic merit is comparable to that of a crossword puzzle: Call it Cruciverbalist verse. And you should appreciate that the great virtue of such limited forms as sonnets and sestinas is that they are guaranteed not to go on too long. Sonnets are shorter, of course: perhaps you'll decide I should have written one of those.
Or a limerick.
Finally, a word on scansion: I cheated there, too.