Sestina (Leaving Cert English): Revision Notes
Sestina
Overview and introduction
Elizabeth Bishop's "Sestina" demonstrates the poet's remarkable ability to observe minute details and transform them into compelling poetry that explores profound themes of home and solitude. The poem's atmosphere shifts between solemn and lighter moments, achieved through Bishop's skilful use of personification and anthropomorphism. Her approach varies from playful to direct, creating a complex emotional landscape within this carefully structured verse form.
Understanding the sestina structure
A sestina represents one of poetry's most challenging forms. Bishop's poem consists of seven stanzas with an uneven structure - the first six stanzas contain six lines each (called sestets), which is traditional for sestina poetry. The final stanza contains only three lines, known as a tercet or "envoi." This form traces its origins back to 12th-century troubadour music, emphasising the importance of repetition and musical heritage.
The defining characteristic of a sestina lies in its repetition pattern. The six end words from the opening stanza - "house," "grandmother," "child," "Stove," "almanack," and "tears" - reappear in different arrangements throughout the following five stanzas. These same words then feature within and at the end of the three-line envoi, creating a cyclical structure that mirrors the poem's themes of time and repetition.
Poetic techniques
Bishop employs numerous literary devices throughout the poem. Alliteration appears when consecutive words begin with identical sounds, such as "rain" and "roof" in the second stanza, or "teakettle's" and "tears" in stanza three. This technique creates musical quality and emphasis.
Epistrophe, the repetition of words or phrases at line endings, proves essential for writing successful sestinas. This device creates the foundation for the form's intricate pattern of repetition.
Enjambment occurs frequently, where lines break before their natural stopping points, forcing readers to continue to the next line for complete meaning. This technique appears in transitions between lines one and two of the third stanza, and between lines five and six of the sixth stanza, creating fluid movement through the verses.
Bishop uses similes to create vivid comparisons, such as describing the almanack as being "like" a bird in the fourth stanza. These comparisons help readers visualise the scene more clearly.
Personification runs throughout the poem, giving human qualities to inanimate objects. Notable examples include the teakettle's "small hard tears" that "dance like mad on the hot black stove," transforming everyday kitchen items into emotional participants in the scene.
Detailed analysis by stanza
Stanza one
The opening establishes the setting with "September rain falls on the house" and "In the failing light, the old grandmother" sitting with a child. The speaker uses "the" rather than "a" house, suggesting a specific, significant location. The "f" sound repeats in "failing," creating alliteration that emphasises the darkening evening light.
Literary Technique Analysis: Hidden Emotion
The scene initially appears tender - a grandmother and grandchild together "beside the Little Marvel Stove," sharing "jokes from the almanack." However, the final line reveals complexity: the grandmother is "laughing and talking to hide her tears," introducing an undercurrent of sorrow beneath the surface warmth.
Stanza two
This stanza introduces the grandmother's "equinoctial tears," linking her sorrow to the seasonal timing around the equinox. The poem connects her emotional state to natural cycles and the almanack's predictions, suggesting that both her tears and the rain were "foretold by the almanack, but only known to a grandmother."
The connection between tears and seasonal timing implies deep understanding that comes with age and experience. The child remains unaware of the grandmother's hidden grief, actively engaging with the almanack while the grandmother conceals her emotional pain.
Stanza three
The grandmother speaks directly to the child, announcing "It's time for tea now," marking the progression to late afternoon. The opening line demonstrates caesura - a deliberate pause that creates emphasis despite the simple statement.
The child becomes fascinated by the "teakettle's small hard tears" that "dance like mad on the hot black stove." This personification connects the kettle's behaviour to the grandmother's tears and the rain's rhythm on the roof. The word "dance" repeats in line four, developing connections between different forms of movement - tears, water, and rain.
The stanza concludes as the grandmother "hangs up the clever almanack," with Bishop describing it as "clever" for its ability to predict weather and, symbolically, the grandmother's tears. The sixth line uses enjambment, encouraging quick movement into the fourth stanza.
Stanza four
The fourth stanza continues the sentence from stanza three, describing the almanack hanging "on its string. Birdlike, the almanack" as it "feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove." Bishop uses a simile comparing the almanack to a bird, with its pages resembling spread wings.
The repetition of "hover" in lines two and three emphasises the almanack's bird-like presence above both child and grandmother, suggesting its importance to both characters. Its position in the room creates an almost watchful quality, as if anticipating future events.
The grandmother holds a "teacup full of dark brown tears" in line four - a metaphor for tea that draws attention back to her concealed sorrow. The underlying cause of her grief remains mysterious throughout the poem.
The grandmother's action of adding wood to the stove, motivated by thinking the house feels chilly, might serve purposes beyond warmth - perhaps providing distraction or activity to manage her emotional state.
Stanza five
The fifth stanza shifts focus to fantastical elements as "the Marvel Stove" proudly displays something to the grandmother. Bishop intensifies the personification, creating an imaginative world where household objects possess human characteristics approaching anthropomorphism.
The stove and almanack engage in conversation while the child draws with crayons. Their mysterious words remain unexplained but suggest themes of destiny or prediction. The child, absorbed in their own world, draws "a rigid house / and a winding pathway."
Symbolic Analysis: The Child's Drawing
The adjective "rigid" creates an unusual, somewhat unsettling image of an inflexible, stark dwelling. This may represent the child's unconscious perception of their current home situation, possibly reflecting the same house they currently occupy.
The child also draws "a man with buttons like tears," introducing another strange image that reintroduces tears into the poem. The connection between this figure, his tear-shaped buttons, and the grandmother remains unclear but suggests the child may sense more than they consciously understand about the family's circumstances.
Stanza six
The final six-line stanza returns focus to the grandmother's world. While the child was drawing, the grandmother worked at the stove. Bishop's imagination transforms the scene as "little moons fall down like tears / from between the pages of the almanack."
These beautiful lines blur the boundary between fantasy and reality while maintaining mystery. The moons cascade from the almanack into the child's drawing of a flowerbed, suggesting Bishop's imaginative world continues expanding throughout the house.
Stanza seven (envoi)
The concluding tercet serves as the envoi, rearranging all six end words within its three lines. The almanack speaks again, declaring "Time to plant tears," which must be understood in relation to the moons that have fallen into the flowerbed. The almanack's traditional role involves determining proper planting and harvesting times.
The solemn mood established by the grandmother's tears persists throughout most of the poem, but now suggests potential growth. From the garden perspective, tears might nurture new life rather than representing only sorrow.
The grandmother attempts to mask her grief by "singing to the marvellous stove" while the child "draws another inscrutable house." The scene appears cyclical - the child continues drawing mysterious houses while the fantastical and realistic elements have completely merged.
From the initial sweet moments of shared laughter and connection, the grandmother and child have gradually retreated into separate worlds, highlighting themes of isolation within family relationships.
Major themes
Family trauma and communication
"Sestina" explores the complex dynamics between adult grief and childhood innocence. Drawing inspiration from Bishop's own early experiences losing her father as a baby and having her mother committed to psychiatric care, the poem depicts a grandmother caring for her grandchild in the kitchen.
Although they share jokes and tea, the grandmother clearly struggles with emotional pain, "laughing and talking to hide her tears." She keeps her grief concealed, likely attempting to preserve her grandchild's innocence. This illustrates how adults often try protecting children from painful realities while simultaneously suggesting the child may sense more than the grandmother realises.
The child's obsession with drawing "inscrutable" houses with "winding paths" suggests awareness of disruption in their home environment. When the grandmother announces tea time, the child becomes distracted by the "teakettle's small hard tears / dance like mad," possibly indicating distraction by loss or sadness they cannot articulate.
The poem concludes with both characters at the stove and drawing separately, isolated from each other despite sharing the same space. This suggests the grandmother's protective attempts may inadvertently increase both their loneliness. The family's inability to communicate openly about their struggles affects both generations.
Time, change, and grief
"Sestina" captures a moment marked by temporal change and grief. Rather than appearing shocked by her loss, the grandmother treats it as predictably as autumn's arrival. Her awareness that both her "tears" and the "rain" were "foretold by the almanack" suggests mature understanding that change and pain represent inevitable aspects of life, as natural as seasonal progression.
The grandmother approaches her grief matter-of-factly, believing both her sorrow and the September rain were predicted. This could indicate she views the family's tragedy as inevitable, or simply that grief itself is unavoidable.
Time continues moving forwards throughout the poem, and loss cannot be prevented or reversed. Although the child currently remains unaware of this loss or its significance, the poem suggests they will eventually experience it too. The child's drawing of a "rigid house" with a "winding pathway" might hint at future hardships resulting from this loss - a difficult journey leading far from their original home.
While the grandmother tends the stove, "little moons fall down like tears / from between the pages of the almanack" into the child's flowerbed drawing. Parts of the almanack become integrated into the child's artistic creation, suggesting external forces beyond the child's control shape their future. The speaker anthropomorphizes the almanack, having it declare "Time to plant tears," implying that while the child doesn't understand current events, seeds of future grief are already being established.
Like seasons and growing plants that flourish then wither, grief operates in cycles. Ultimately, loss remains both predictable and impossible to prevent, suggesting no one can escape grief as a fundamental part of existence.
Key Points to Remember:
- The sestina form uses six repeating end words that cycle through different patterns across seven stanzas
- Bishop masterfully combines realistic domestic scenes with fantastical personification of household objects
- The grandmother's hidden tears represent adult attempts to protect children from painful truths about loss
- The poem's timing around the September equinox connects personal grief to natural seasonal cycles
- The child's mysterious drawings suggest unconscious awareness of family disruption and change