The 99 Poem Challenge (Fox-Trot-9) ✓

43. Sestina -- Writer's Block

The 99 Poem Challenge
Fox-Trot-9

43. Sestina — Writer's Block

1

This shapeless phantom needs no introduction:
The poets fail to find that perfect rhyme;
The novelists begin to doubt the story;
The essayists cannot compose their thoughts;
In all, this thieving phantom of the night
Wreaks havoc on our will to write it down!

2

So once again I set my pencil down
And contemplate another introduction!
So once again I spend another night
In thinking of another way to rhyme
This helpless mess of incoherent thoughts
Into the lines of one coherent story!

3

But when I have the makings of a story,
The phantom comes along and hammers down
The budding glimmer of my weary thoughts!
This bloody phantom's dreaded introduction
Disables words from linking to their rhyme,
Condemning me to rue this cursèd night!

4

Oh! How can I continue on tonight
When these attempts repeat the same old story?
Oh! Why can I not figure out a rhyme
To make this couplet sing and dance on down
In measured lines beyond the introduction?
It seems my muse withdrew from all my thoughts!

5

Without a muse to marshall all these thoughts,
I'm just a dog without a bone, a knight
Without a lance, a wordless introduction!
Without a muse, I've failed to push the story
Beyond the first few lines and then on down
Into completion, wasting time in rhyme.

6

This phantom's dogged my steps, impeded rhyme!
This phantom's plagued all corners of my thoughts!
Towards the depths, this phantom's dragged me down
Into a hell of endless hours at night!
And so I'll turn this phantom's nightmare story
Into the makings of an introduction.

(Envoi)

So give me rhyme, oh writer's block! Tonight,
You are the muse of all my thoughts—my story!
I'll write you down a lovely introduction!

A/N: The sestina is a complex 39-line fixed form, invented by Arnaut Daniel, that repeats the last six end-words of each 6-line stanza in every stanza, and ends with a 3-line envoi, where 2 or more end-words are in each line.

Meter: iambic pentameter
Rhyme:

Stanza 1: ABCDEF
Stanza 2: FAEBDC
Stanza 3: CFDABE
Stanza 4: ECBFAD
Stanza 5: DEACFB
Stanza 6: BDFECA
Stanza 7: (envoi) ACE & BDF (varies)