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Poetry & prosody

Sestet

A six-line stanza or verse unit, with no single required meter or rhyme pattern.

A sestet is a unit of six verse lines. The name specifies the number of lines, not a single meter or rhyme scheme. It may be an independent stanza or part of a longer form.

The final six lines of an Italian sonnet are commonly called its sestet. French sonnets often print these as two tercets, so related traditions may describe the grouping differently.

Example

A sestet may use AABCCB, with the third and sixth lines sharing a rhyme.

In the workshop

Plan the movement across six lines before choosing the rhymes.

Related terms

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