Since you asked about a Sestina...

Daniel's form is firmly fixed.
With pleasure and with pain it's tightly bound.
The poet, from all words, takes only six;
Their meanings more important than their sound.
These words are unaware of what awaits:
A merry-go-round game of lost and found!

Second's first is searched and found.
But every stanza's ending words are fixed.
The poet nods, as each new line awaits,
With fates as certain as in orbit bound—
Their chasing endings made of echoed sound,
And dizzy cycles dancing with the six.

Third's the next of stanzas six,
Its ever moving pattern like a round;
Reverberating with a humming sound.
As now is clear, all ends are fixed,
Like Arnaut's rules, by which we all are bound,
They show a willing reader what awaits.

Four's first ending word awaits—
The merry chase of endings numbered six.
But meanings are not similarly bound;
The meaning of a poem isn't round.
Unlike the form, it often isn't fixed,
And makes a very different kind of sound.

Making meaning, making sound;
As five unfolds the poem's fate awaits.
Sestina meanings flicker through the fixed
But always changing meanings of the six.
Their stanzas show that not all circles round
Must only lead to meanings that are bound.

Final stanza's end is bound;
The last sestet should show the form is sound.
The words and meanings dance a final round,
And lead to what the poet knows awaits.
A full and final mention of the six
Is used in final service to a fixed

And formal bound. It patiently awaits—
This envoi with the sound of loyal six;
They've made their round, their meanings never fixed.

➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖

Author's Remarks

My favorite method for learning a new poetic form is to create a self-referential work that explains the rules and nuances of the form within the very structure it outlines.

I believe most poetic forms are particularly well-suited for exploring topics that resonate with the form's inherent freedoms and limitations, so it's rare to encounter a poetic structure whose guidelines don't naturally lend themselves to introspective analysis through the framework they provide.

The sestina employs a captivating mathematical formula to determine how the six end-words from its first six-line stanza are systematically reused as the end-words in each subsequent six-line stanza, and then reassembled in a specific sequence in the concluding three-line envoi—with three words appearing within the lines and three as line endings. As one might anticipate, the subject of the poem is dissected across the six stanzas and envoi, utilizing various interpretations or nuances of the six words to illuminate different facets of the topic at hand.

I hope you enjoy reading this sestina, which delves into its own process of reiterating six words, each time infusing them with a new perspective articulating the essence of the sestina form itself.

For those interested in the form's origins, attentive readers may even learn the name of its creator!

Since you asked about a Sestina...