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 is strengthened by the situation of the grandmother trying to hide her tears. In the second stanza, it becomes clear that the grandmother...