Editing Sestina (section)

==History==
[[File:BnF ms. 12473 fol. 50 - Arnaut Daniel (1).jpg|thumb|left|The Occitan troubadour Arnaut Daniel, considered the originator of the sestina]]
The oldest-known sestina is "Lo ferm voler qu'el cor m'intra", written around 1200 by [[Arnaut Daniel]], a [[troubadour]] of [[Aquitaine|Aquitanian]] origin; he refers to it as "cledisat", meaning, more or less, "interlock".<ref name=eusebi>{{cite book|last=Eusebi|first=Mario|title=L'aur'amara|year=1996|publisher=Carocci|location=Rome|isbn=978-88-7984-167-2}}</ref> Hence, Daniel is generally considered the form's inventor,<ref name="Fry 2007, p. 235">Fry 2007, p. 235</ref> though it has been suggested that he may only have innovated an already existing form.<ref name="Davidson 1910 pp. 18–20">Davidson 1910 pp. 18–20</ref> Nevertheless, two other original troubadouric sestinas are recognised,<ref>{{cite book|last=Collura|first=Alessio|title=Il trovatore Guilhem Peire de Cazals. Edizione Critica|year=2010|publisher=Master Thesis, University of Padova|location=Padova|url=https://www.academia.edu/3224706}}</ref> the best known being "Eras, pus vey mon benastruc" by [[Guilhem Peire Cazals de Caortz]]; there are also two [[contrafacta]] built on the same end-words, the best known being ''Ben gran avoleza intra'' by [[Bertran de Born]]. These early sestinas were written in [[Old Occitan]]; the form started spilling into Italian with [[Dante]] in the 13th century; by the 15th, it was used in Portuguese by [[Luís de Camões]].<ref name="Preminger 1993, p. 1146" /><ref name="dantesestina">{{cite web|title=Sestina of the Lady Pietra degli Scrovigni|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/180701|publisher=[[Poetry Foundation|The Poetry Foundation]]|access-date=20 March 2012}}</ref>

The involvement of Dante and [[Petrarch]] in establishing the sestina form,<ref name="Gasparov 1996, p. 159" /> together with the contributions of others in the country, account for its classification as an Italian verse form—despite not originating there.<ref name="Stratton 1917, pp. 306, 316, 318">Stratton 1917, pp. 306, 316, 318</ref> The result was that the sestina was re-imported into France from Italy in the 16th century.<ref name="Kastner 1903 p. 283">Kastner 1903 p. 283</ref> [[Pontus de Tyard]] was the first poet to attempt the form in French, and the only one to do so prior to the 19th century; he introduced a partial [[rhyme scheme]] into his sestina.<ref name="Kastner, 1903 pp. 283–4">Kastner, 1903 pp. 283–4</ref>

===English===
An early version of the sestina in [[Middle English language|Middle English]] is the "Hymn to Venus" by [[Elizabeth Woodville]] (1437–1492); it is an "elaboration" on the form, found in one single manuscript.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cteyEYBjdTsC&pg=PA227 |title=A Companion to the Middle English Lyric |editor1-first=Thomas Gibson |editor1-last=Duncan |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |year=2005 |isbn=9781843840657 |first=Sarah |last=Stanbury |chapter=Middle English Religious Lyrics |pages=227–41}}</ref> It is a six-stanza poem that praises [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]], the goddess of love,<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GtPSOP3jvLYC&pg=PA195 |first=Sarah |last=McNamer |chapter=Lyrics and romances |title=The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women's Writing |editor1-last=Wallace |editor1-first=David |editor2-first=Carolyn |editor2-last=Dinshaw |publisher=Cambridge UP |year=2003 |isbn=9780521796385 |pages=195–209}}</ref> and consists of six seven-line stanzas in which the first line of each stanza is also its last line, and the lines of the first stanza provide the first lines for each subsequent stanza.<ref>{{cite book |title=Women's Writing in Middle English |editor1-first=Alexandra |editor1-last=Barratt |pages=275–77 |publisher=Longman |location=New York |isbn=0-582-06192-X |year=1992}}</ref>

The first appearance of the sestina in English print is "Ye wastefull woodes", comprising lines 151–89 of the August Æglogue in [[Edmund Spenser]]'s ''[[Shepherd's Calendar]]'', published in 1579. It is in unrhymed iambic pentameter, but the order of end-words in each stanza is non-standard – ending 123456, 612345, etc. – each stanza promoting the previous final end-word to the first line, but otherwise leaving the order intact; the envoi order is (1) 2 / (3) 4 / (5) 6.<ref name="spensershepherd">{{cite web|title=The Shepheardes Calender: August|url=http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/august.html|publisher=[[University of Oregon]]|access-date=28 March 2012}}</ref> This scheme was set by the Spaniard [[Gutierre de Cetina]].<ref name="Shapiro 1980, p. 185">Shapiro 1980, p. 185</ref>

Although they appeared in print later, [[Philip Sidney]]'s three sestinas may have been written earlier, and are often credited as the first in English. The first published (toward the end of Book I of ''[[The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia]]'', 1590<ref name="Ferguson 1996, pp. 188–90">Ferguson 1996, pp. 188–90</ref>) is the double sestina "Ye Goatherd Gods". In this variant the standard end-word pattern is repeated for twelve stanzas, ending with a three-line envoi, resulting in a poem of 75 lines. Two others were published in subsequent editions of the ''Arcadia''. The second, "Since wailing is a bud of causeful sorrow", is in the "standard" form. Like "Ye Goatherd Gods" it is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter and uses exclusively feminine endings, reflecting the Italian ''endecasillabo''. The third, "Farewell, O sun, Arcadia's clearest light", is the first rhyming sestina in English: it is in iambic pentameters and follows the standard end-word scheme, but rhymes ABABCC in the first stanza (the [[rhyme scheme]] necessarily changes in each subsequent stanza, a consequence of which is that the 6th stanza is in rhyming couplets). Sidney uses the same envoi structure as Spenser. [[William Drummond of Hawthornden]] published two sestinas (which he called "sextains") in 1616, which copy the form of Sidney's rhyming sestina. After this, there is an absence of notable sestinas for over 250 years,<ref name="Burt 2007, p. 219">Burt 2007, p. 219</ref> with [[John Frederick Nims]] noting that, "...&nbsp;there is not a single sestina in the three volumes of the Oxford anthologies that cover the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."<ref name="Caplan 2006, pp. 19-20">Caplan 2006, pp. 19–20</ref>

In the 1870s, there was a revival of interest in French forms, led by [[Andrew Lang]], [[Henry Austin Dobson|Austin Dobson]], [[Edmund Gosse]], [[W. E. Henley]], [[John Payne (poet)|John Payne]], and others.<ref name="White 1887, p xxxix">White 1887, p xxxix</ref> The earliest sestina of this period is [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]]'s "Sestina".<ref>This is the earliest-published sestina reprinted by Gleeson White (White 1887, pp&nbsp;203–12), and he doesn't mention any earlier ones.</ref> It is in iambic pentameter rhyming ABABAB in the first stanza; each stanza begins by repeating the previous end-words 6 then 1, but the following 4 lines repeat the remaining end-words ''ad lib''; the envoi is (1) 4 / (2) 3 / (5) 6. In the same volume (''Poems and Ballads, Second Series'', 1878) Swinburne introduces a "double sestina"<ref name="Preminger 1993, p. 1146" /><ref name="Lennard 2006, p. 53">Lennard 2006, p. 53</ref> ("The Complaint of Lisa") that is unlike Sidney's: it comprises 12 stanzas of 12 iambic pentameter lines each, the first stanza rhyming ABCABDCEFEDF. Similar to his "Sestina", each stanza first repeats end-words 12 then 1 of the previous stanza; the rest are ''ad lib''. The envoi is (12) 10 / (8) 9 / (7) 4 / (3) 6 / (2) 1 / (11) 5.

From the 1930s, a revival of the form took place across the English-speaking world, led by poets such as [[W. H. Auden]], and the 1950s were described as the "age of the sestina" by James E. B. Breslin.<ref name="Caplan 2006, p. 20">Caplan 2006, p. 20</ref> "Sestina: Altaforte" by [[Ezra Pound]], "Paysage moralisé" by W. H. Auden, and "Sestina" by [[Elizabeth Bishop]] are distinguished modern examples of the sestina.<ref name="altaforte">{{cite web|title=Sestina: Altaforte|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/240262|publisher=[[Poetry Foundation|The Poetry Foundation]]|access-date=20 March 2012}}</ref><ref name="Preminger 1993, p. 1147">Preminger 1993, p. 1147</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://staff.washington.edu/rmcnamar/383/bishop.html|title=Elizabeth Bishop: Sestina|last=Ruby|date=January 24, 2012|website=Elizabeth Bishop|access-date=March 9, 2018}}</ref> "Histoire" by [[Harry Mathews]] adds an additional [[Oulipo|Oulipian]] constraint: the end words wildly misusing ideological or prejudicial terms.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Matthews |first1=Harry |title=Histoire |journal=[[The New York Review of Books]] |date=August 16, 1984 |volume=XXXI |issue=13 |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1984/08/16/histoire/ |access-date=5 March 2024}}</ref> The sestina remains a popular closed verse form, and many sestinas continue to be written by contemporary poets;<ref name="Burt 2007, pp. 218–19">Burt 2007, pp. 218–19</ref> notable examples include "Six Bad Poets" by [[Christopher Reid (writer)|Christopher Reid]],<ref name="guardian2013">{{cite news |last1=Kellaway |first1=Kate |title=Six Bad Poets by Christopher Reid – review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/27/six-bad-poets-christopher-reid |work=The Guardian |date=26 October 2013 |access-date=14 July 2023}}</ref><ref name="spectator2013">{{cite web |last1=Wheldon |first1=Wynn |title=Six Bad Poets, by Christopher Reid – review |date=26 September 2013 |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/six-bad-poets-by-christopher-reid-review/ |publisher=The Spectator |access-date=14 July 2023}}</ref> "The Guest Ellen at the Supper for Street People" by [[David Ferry (poet)|David Ferry]] and "IVF" by [[Kona Macphee]].<ref name="Fry 2007, p. 235" /><ref name=ferrysestina>{{cite web|title=The Guest Ellen at the Supper for Street People|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172170|publisher=[[Poetry Foundation|The Poetry Foundation]]|access-date=20 March 2012}}</ref>