Sestina

At first, looking into this, a Sestina seems to be a complicated poem. I'm still researching, and it is complicated. these types of poems are also know as sextina, sestine, or a sextain, and is a highly structured poem consisting of six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet (called its envoy or tornada), for a total of thirty-nine lines.

The same set of six words ends the lines of each of the six-line stanzas, but in a different order each time; if we number the first stanza's lines 123456, then the words ending the second stanza's lines appear in the order 615243, then 364125, then 532614, then 451362, and finally 246531. This organization is referred to as retrogradatio cruciata ("retrograde cross"). These six words then appear in the tercet as well, with the tercet's first line usually containing 1 and 2, its second 3 and 4, and its third 5 and 6 (but other versions exist, described below). English sestinas are usually written in iambic pentameter or another decasyllabic meter


SESTINA:ALAFORTE by Ezra Pound

Damn it all! all this our South stinks peace.
You whoreson dog, Papiols, come! Let's to music!
I have no life save when the swords clash.
But ah! When I see the standards gold, vair, purple, opposing
And the broad fields beneath them turn crimson,
Then howl I my heart nigh mad with rejoicing.

In hot summer have I great rejoicing
When the tempests kill the earth's foul peace,
And the lightnings from black heav'n flash crimson,
And the fierce thunders roar me their music
And the wind shriek through the clouds mad, opposing,
And through all the raven skies God's swords clash.

Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!
And the shrill neighs of destriers in battle rejoicing,
Spiked breast to spiked breast opposing!
Better one hour's stour than a years peace
With flat boards, bawds, wine and frail music!
Bah! there's no wine like the blood's crimson!

And I love to see the sun rise blood-crimson.
And I watch his spears through the dark clash
And it fills all my heart with rejoicing
And pries wide my mouth with fast music
When I see him so scorn and defy peace,
His lone might 'gainst all darkness opposing.

The man who fears war and squats opposing
My words for stour, hath no blood of crimson
But is fit only to rot in womanish peace
Far from where worth's won and the swords clash
For the death of such sluts I go rejoicing;
Yea, I fill all the air with my music.

Papiols, Papiols, to the music!
There's no sound like the swords swords opposing,
No cry like the battle's rejoicing
When our elbows and swords drip the crimson
And our charges 'gainst "The Leopard's" rush clash.
May God damn for ever all who cry "Peace!"

And let the music of the swords make them crimson!
Hell grant soon we hear again the swords the swords clash!
Hell blot black for alway the thought "Peace!"

Ezra Pound follows the restrictions of the Sestina. I believe the three lines at the end resemble a couplet. It does what a couplet would do to conclude a poem (typically a sonnet, with four lines then three) the sestina concludes wiht three lines, because hte stanza has six lines, instead of four.

Ezra chose her repeating 6 words to be "peace", "music", "clash", "opposing", :crimson", "rejoicing". She chooses her diction carefully, as they are opposites- (peace/clash) (music/crimson) (opposing/rejoicing) for the purpose of creating a poem wiht substance and broad topics, so she can relate all of the words to each other for more sentance structure possibilites. The poem talks of war and celebration.

Question: What do you think Ezra's motivation for writing her sestina is, and why does this type of poem satify her message?