Summary:
In addition to being the name of Elizabeth Bishop's poem, "Sestina" reminds us of its difficult, complex form and enhances the emphasis on the predetermining, fatal forces that navigate the character's lives. The six repeating end-words in the poem -- "grandmother", "child", "house", "stove", "almanac", and "tears" -- all serve to underline this meaning. As the six end-words repeat themselves in a predetermined order, so the world described in the poem is bound to the predetermined rules of the stars represented in the almanac.
The "Sestina" by Elizabeth Bishop
The "Sestina" by Elizabeth Bishop is titled after the verse form of the Italian origin by that name. However, the name of the poem is not only to remind us of its difficult and complex form, but also to enhance the subject of the poem- the fatal forces that navigate the character's lives. Thus, the main feature of the poetic form, the six repeating end-words, "grandmother", "child", "house", "stove", "almanac", "tears", all 'work' together to underline this meaning, that the experience of the characters, as well as any other experience, "was to be."
The first end-word is "house." A house symbolizes a calm domestic life, but the rain falling on the house creates a sense of a cold atmosphere, which.....
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