Think about three wishes before you close the door.
Three is all that you can have, you cannot ask for more.
Don't hurry in your thinking, and mistake the three for four.
Just make sure that what you wish is something you adore.
Beware a simple utterance of a wish you might abhor.
I cannot undo what has been done, your pleas I will ignore.
Do not wish of fancy goods, these things you should ignore.
Do not wish of thoughts impure to hang upon your door.
To wish of things most harmful, your heart will soon abhor
Be glad the wish of one true love you needn’t want one more.
Because you see your paramour your face he does adore.
He loves you for the soul you are in multiples of four.
These wishes can't be taken after the hour four.
The rules are set in stone, and ones you can't ignore.
Just possibly, you might wish for the one that you adore.
To always feel so welcomed when he knocks upon your door.
Your charming grace he’ll always feel he’ll love you ever more.
For in your loving, faithful heart there is nothing to abhor.
Your life is full of beauty, your seasons don’t abhor.
Because they are completions, passages of four.
And with this wish I give to you the knowledge to know more.
Keep these wishes secret but don’t put them on ignore.
Don’t post a do not enter sign in neon on your door.
Pick and choose your battles, the ones that you adore.
The time is drawing nearer, to be late I don't adore.
When it comes to wishing wishes, its something I abhor.
Start to wish most quickly, before I'm out the door.
The clock is ticking closer, to the magic hour four.
This only happens once in life, this chance you can't ignore.
Wish them now before their gone, gone forever more.
I firstly wish you one of love, who could ask for more?
Secondly I wish you knowledge and this you will adore.
Third I wish for you compassion, this do not ignore.
Fourthly treat your seasons well, not ones will you abhor.
The final wish that you might make before the tick of four.
Please give to me while smiling, as you show me to the door.
When a stranger with wishes taps your door, don't expect less, don't expect more.
Three wishes you'll get, and never four, and then yourself you will adore.
For this is why we all abhor, the ones who wish and then ignore.
Author notes
Monorhymed Sestina
The lines are grouped into six sestets and a concluding tercet. Thus a Sestina has 39 lines.
Lines may be of any length. Their length is usually consistent in a single poem.
The six words that end each of the lines of the first stanza are repeated in a different order at the end of lines in each of the subsequent five stanzas. The particular pattern is given below. (This kind of recurrent pattern is "lexical repetition".)
The repeated words are unrhymed, unless you want to try the daunting task of a Monorhymed Sestina in which all ending words rhyme.
The first line of each sestet after the first ends with the same word as the one that ended the last line of the sestet before it.
In the closing tercet, each of the six words are used, with one in the middle of each line and one at the end.
The pattern of word-repetition is as follows, where the words that end the lines of the first sestet are represented by the numbers "1 2 3 4 5 6":
1 2 3 4 5 6 - End words of lines in first sestet.
6 1 5 2 4 3 - End words of lines in second sestet.
3 6 4 1 2 5 - End words of lines in third sestet.
5 3 2 6 1 4 - End words of lines in fourth sestet.
4 5 1 3 6 2 - End words of lines in fifth sestet.
2 4 6 5 3 1 - End words of lines in sixth sestet.
(6 2) (1 4) (5 3) - Middle and end words of lines in tercet.
A contest entry
- Form Poetry --- II by rinzurajan.
700 points, ended November 1, 56 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
1 - 19 of 19
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a sestina done really well...infact i had received a lot of sestinas but none was explained so clearly and beautifully as u did...
goodl uck -
Knew a girl who thought she had a monorhymed sestina - turned out it was just cystitis. Bravo and all that - but I prefer it when you piss glass!
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I guess you know that I’m the Sestina teacher here on AP , would you like the job? I totally enjoyed this masterpiece.
Love,
Amera♥
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This is a totally obsessive write, with a manic feel to it. Sestina's can get like that. Let me go back and re-read it several times...
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I probably was manic, lol
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fuck cinn. what the fuck. i hate rhyme and i almost hate that I love this.
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This was written long ago and far away on a bet. Just because I write and prefer free-verse does not mean one can't be knowledgeable about form. I'm well rounded.
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Like I always say, "I've proved I can draw, now I'm entitled to pickle a shark and call it art".
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*snorts cognac*
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Careful now, dear.
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I would love to see a free verse version of this. Helluva write gal
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free version? please 'splain, I'm daft
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a free verse version, in other words letting it breath without the confines of repeated format, the guts of it without the dolling up.
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quite the challenge, so I shall do this that you request, especially for you.
stay tuned. -
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I was merely expressing an appreciation of your work, and my perception of it. It think it would make some wicked Cinn-buki. .. a request.. well sure.. wtf. lol. your wit is admirable.
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Then nix the request, I'll just do it for you because I want and can.
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groovy
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She Rhymes..*faints...
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SHHH!
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