In several previous postings (collected at this link) this blog has considered the poetry form called a sestina: a sestina has 39 lines and its form depends on 6 words -- arrangements of which are the end-words of 6 6-line stanzas; these same words also appear, 2 per line, in the final 3-line stanza.
Monday, June 26, 2023
TRITINA -- a tiny SESTINA
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Trying a Tritina
Writer and scholar Marian Christie (born in Zimbabwe and now in Kent, England) has had a long term interest in mathematics and poetry and, during the last several years, she has created a blog -- Poetry and Mathematics -- in which she explores, with careful detail, some interesting and important links between these two arts.
Christie's work has been featured several times in this blog and my posting today shows my attempt to learn from one of her postings. At this link, on July 13, 2022, Christie posted "Turning in Circles -- the Tritina" and I have used her posting to learn the requirements for a tritina and, then, to try to write one.
A tritina consists of ten lines -- three three-line stanzas with a final, separate line. The stanzas have the same three end-words, rotated in the sequence 123, 312, 231, and a single final line containing all three end-words.
I have tried to write a tritina and offer my example below -- not because it is good but because it explores a pattern that I think might work well for students trying to write a poem in a math class.
ARE THINGS DIFFERENT NOW IN SCHOOL? a sample tritina