Elizabeth Bishop's "Sestina"Elizabeth Bishop's "Sestina" is titled after the verse form of the Italian origin by this 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 course through the character's life. Thus, the main feature of the poetic form, the six repetitive ending words , "grandmother", ". child", "house", "stove", "almanac", "tears", all "work" together to emphasize this sense, that the experience of the characters, like any other experience, "had to be". The first final word is "house". A house symbolizes a calm domestic life, but the rain falling on the house creates a cold atmosphere, reinforced by the situation of the grandmother trying to hide her tears, it becomes clear that the grandmother. mother believes that everything was "foretold by the almanac." The almanac represents the belief that everything is determined by the stars, including the rain that falls on the house. Now the house is part of a predetermined system, just like the grandmother and child who live in the house By the third stanza, the speaker "joins" the grandmother's belief in the omniscient almanac by comparing the vapors resulting from heating water. with the rain falling on the house, saying: "the hard little tears from the kettle dance like crazy... the way the rain must dance on the house." "Having shown how the house and the rain are part of a determined and "foretold" system, the fourth stanza sharpens and returns the reader to his previous notion of the house symbolizing the family, as the grandmother's tears coincide with the "cold" of the house in the fifth s...... middle of paper ...... control of tears becomes quite clear when the almanac decides that it is "time to. plant tears". Now there is no doubt about the course of tears. tears. Just as the six ending words repeat in a predetermined order, the world described in the poem is linked to the predetermined rules of the stars And just as the poet cannot use a strict form of poetry without adhering to its predetermined laws, the reality of the poem is one where all objects, animate or inanimate, must adhere to the predetermined laws of the almanac. . Thus Bishop uses a rigorous form that simulates a rigorous world where everything, whether “equinoxial tears,” rain on the roof, or even a child's drawing, is meant to be. . Ed. M. Strand and E. Boland. New York: Norton 2001