A six-line stanza, or the final six lines of a 14-line Italian or Petrarchan sonnet. A sestet refers only to the final portion of a sonnet, otherwise the six-line stanza is known as a sexain. The second stanza of Emily Dickinson’s “The Soul has Bandaged Moments” is a sexain. “Sestina: Like,” by A.E. Stallings possesses several sexains. See also Sestina.
Glossary of Poetic Terms
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