SESTINA PAPER

“Sestina” means songs of sixes. There are six six-line stanzas and a final three-line stanza. In each six-line stanza, the writer repeats six end-words in a prescribed order and then uses those six words again, in any order, in the final three-line stanza. The author, Elizabeth Bishop came up with this marvelous poem using this form of poem writing. In this poem, the poet tells a painful story of a grandmother and a child living with loss. The poem setting is in a kitchen on a rainy afternoon in September.

The setting; atmosphere and place are vital to the story. The chilly, rainy weather mirrors the unhappiness in the kitchen. The season (fall) as well as the month (September) and the word “equinoctial”, also tells us the mood of the house at that time. Also, the emphasis on the word “tears” tells the mood of the house. The “tears” tips the poem towards the absurdity. Although the grandmother tries to remain cheerful, (considering the presence of the child) her fears give her away, and thus the child, eventually sees the sadness in his/ her grandmother. The fact that it is a man whom the child draws “with butting like tears” may suggest that someone, the grandfather or perhaps the child’s father has left or died.

The grandmother plays a vital role in this poem. The first and second stanza’s focuses on the grandmother. The grandmother tries to maintain a steady and cheerful atmosphere in the house, specifically because of the child but with the rain and the condition of the weather around, it is very difficult for the grandmother to do that. Not even the jokes she read from the almanac was enough to keep her from shedding those tears. The grandmother also invites the child to come for breakfast, which also is a gesture of peace and serenity. Also, the kitchen, particularly the stove permits Elizabeth Bishop to emphasize the grandmother’s desire for warmth and comfort.

The poet tries to personify the almanac and the stove in many forms. The grandmother believes in the predictions of the almanac. The almanac and the stove also play a role in the poem. There is a little argument between the stove and the almanac in the fifth stanza. The stove believes that things just happen because of destiny not because someone says it is going to happen. The almanac believes that he can predict what is going to happen and that things don’t happen just to happen.

“Sestina is a poem that has a lot to offer. A poem which I believe has a deep story within it. It tells of the present, while giving hints of the characters pasts and future. But it is clearly seen that the main point the poet wanted to send across was about the presence of grief in that house. The grief is serious and the final three lines even indicate that the problem will persist and in the last stanza where it ends with an “inscrutable house,” the last thing that should be inscrutable is your house.