The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking The Poet Within

A silly slab of verse, but never mind. It is just a lash-up, a cardboard prototype, but it has its uses. You will notice that I have capitalised and numbered my end-words. They are ONE, TOO, FREE, FOR, THRIVE and STICKS cunningly chosen to sound as much like the numbers 1–6 as I can contrive. These end-words are the heroes of a sestina. Instead of being rhymed, they are reused in a set pattern: this technique is known as lexical repetition. So let us compose Stanza 2. The method is to shuttle up and down the previous stanza starting at the bottom. The end word there is STICKS. I’ll write a line that ends with STICKS, then:But you should know that triumph STICKS

Then we go up to the top: ONE.Like post-it notes and every ONE

Now we go back to the bottom: we’ve used up STICKS, so the next free end-word is THRIVE:Will soon forget. The kind who THRIVE

The next unused end-word at the top is TOO:Are those who show compassion TO

Back down now and the next spare is FOR:The slow, who claim their victory FOR

Only one unused end-word left, FREE:The weak. I’ll tell you this for FREE

So we shuttled from bottom to top, bottom to top, bottom to top taking STICKS, ONE, THRIVE, TO, FOR and FREE. In real digits that would be 6,1,5,2,4,3. This string of numbers is our formula. Stanza 2 now looks like this:But you should know that triumph STICKSLike post-it notes and every ONEWill soon forget. The kind who THRIVEAre those who show compassion TOThe slow, who claim their victory FORThe weak. I’ll tell you this for FREE,

Now Stanza 3 will take the sixth line from Stanza 2, then the first, then the fifth and so on, according to that formula, and build itself accordingly. The sixth line of Stanza 3 is now FREE:You think that winning sets you FREE?

The topmost free end-line is STICKS:No, it’s a poison pill that STICKS

Then FOR, WON, TO and THRIVE: The homophone WON is perfectly acceptable for ONE.In victory’s throat. Worth striving FOR?The golden plaudits you have WONAre valueless and hollow TOOThe victor’s laurels never THRIVE,

Now we do the same to Stanzas 4, 5 and 6, shuttling between lines 6, 1, 5, 2, 4, in formula order.The weeds of self-delusion THRIVEOn pride: they flourish, thick and FREE,To choke your glory. Thickly TOOThe burr of disappointment STICKSTo tarnish all the gold you’ve WON.Is victory worth the fighting FORWhen friendship’s hand is only FORThe weak, whose ventures never THRIVE?I’d so much rather be the ONEWho’s always second. I am FREETo lose. I know how much it STICKSInside your craw to come in TWOBut you should learn that Number TWOCan have no real meaning, FORWe all must cross the River STYXAnd go where victors never THRIVE,No winner’s rostrum there, so FREEYour mind from numbers: Death has WON.

The sixth is the last, after that the whole pattern would repeat. All we have to do now is construct the envoi, which contains all the hero words¹² in a strict order: the second and fifth word in the top line, the fourth and third in the middle line, the sixth and first in the bottom line.EnvoiIn order TO improve and THRIVEStop yearning FOR success, be FREEIf this rule STICKS then all have WON.

It may have seemed a fiendishly complicated structure and it both is and isn’t. The key is to number the lines and follow the 6, 1, 5, 2, 4, 3 formula with (2–5, 4–3, 6–1 for the envoi). If you don’t like numbers you might prefer to letter the lines alphabetically and make a note of this scheme:

ABCDEF, FAEBDC, CFDABE, ECBFAD, DEACFB, BDFECA

(BE/DC/FA)

If you want to understand the sestina’s shape, you might like to think of it as a spiral. Go back and put the tip of your forefinger on STICKS in Stanza 1, without taking it off the page move it in an anticlockwise circle passing through 1, 5, 2, 4 and 3. Do it a couple of times so you get the idea. I have made a table which you might find useful. It contains the end-lines of the sestina we built together, as well as ABC equivalents.

Sestina Table