A sestina (Occitan: sestina [sesˈtinɔ]; Catalan: sextina
[sə(k)sˈtinə] or [se(k)sˈtina]; also known as sestine, sextine,
sextain or sesta rima) is a structured 39-line poetic form
consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, followed by a
three-line stanza, known either as an envoi, tornada, or tercet.
The words that end each line of the first stanza are used as
line endings in each of the following stanzas, rotated in a set
pattern. The sestina is an example of a complex fixed verse
form. The invention of the form is usually attributed to Arnaut
Daniel, a troubadour of 12th-century Provence, and the first
sestinas were written in the Occitan language of that region.
The form was cultivated by his fellow troubadours, then by other
poets on the continent in subsequent centuries; they contributed
to what would become the "standard form" of the sestina. The
earliest example of the sestina in English appeared in 1579,
though they were rarely written in Britain until the end of the
19th century. The sestina remain