Sestina Analysis

September rain falls on the house.
In the failing light, the old grandmother
sits in the kitchen with the child
beside the Little Marvel Stove,
reading the jokes from the almanac,
laughing and talking to hide her tears.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears
and the rain that beats on the roof of the house
were both foretold by the almanac,
but only known to a grandmother.
The iron kettle sings on the stove.
She cuts some bread and says to the child,

It's time for tea now; but the child
is watching the teakettle's small hard tears
dance like mad on the hot black stove,
the way the rain must dance on the house.
Tidying up, the old grandmother
hangs up the clever almanac

on its string. Birdlike, the almanac
hovers half open above the child,
hovers above the old grandmother
and her teacup full of dark brown tears.
She shivers and says she thinks the house
feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.

It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.
I know what I know, says the almanac.
With crayons the child draws a rigid house
and a winding pathway. Then the child
puts in a man with buttons like tears
and shows it proudly to the grandmother.

But secretly, while the grandmother
busies herself about the stove,
the little moons fall down like tears
from between the pages of the almanac
into the flower bed the child
has carefully placed in the front of the house.

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.
The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.

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"Sestina" means song of sixes. There are six six-line stanzas and a final three-line stanza. In each six-line stanza, the writer repeats six end-words in a prescribed order and then uses those six words again, in any order, in the final three-line stanza. The six words in this one are house, grandmother, child, stove, almanac, tears. So this poem follows the rules exactly.

| Posted on 2009-07-02 | by a guest

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The origional title was early sorrow as ti tells the story of a girl living with her grandmother after her mother was sent to a mental institution.

| Posted on 2008-11-10 | by a guest

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I love this hot poem because it dont follow tha rule ss

| Posted on 2008-11-09 | by a guest

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The poem is awesome and it's in the form of a sestina, "A verse form first used by the Provençal troubadours, consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy. The end words of the first stanza are repeated in varied order as end words in the other stanzas and also recur in the envoy." -

| Posted on 2008-05-04 | by a guest

.: the title :.

I belive that this poem has a story deep within it, but for the most part the poet is attempting to teach a lesson on moving on. That is why she says at the end of the poem "plant tears." However I don't understand the meaning of the title, dealing with its connection to the poem. I know that Sestina is a type of poem, and I know its ironic becuase it is a type of poem with repition, and there is a child involved within the poem, and since the grandmothers conscience is the almnac and the stove, then i believe that, thats the connection, is that worng?

| Posted on 2008-04-14 | by a guest