The sestina has six unrhymed stanzas of six lines each in which the words at the ends of the first stanza's lines recur in a rolling pattern at the ends of all the other lines. The sestina concludes with a tercet (three-line stanza) that also uses all six end-words, two to a line.
“The
Mask”
by Kilian, age 7
Sestina
Today's a special holiday
for King Kong, that special gorilla,
who jumped in the ocean,
took a mermaid and went up the mountain.
He heard
the soft music
that reminded him of a black color.
The
mountain was a blend of many colors
that reminded him of a holiday.
He
growled the soft music,
what a famous gorilla!
He fell off the mountain
and rolled into the middle of the ocean.
Floating
in the ocean,
they splashed the blue color
onto the snowy mountain,
sprinkles
of joy on a holiday,
on the beautiful day of gorilla.
They floated to
the beat of the music.
Roaring
and singing the music,
swimming in the shining cold ocean,
the tender
gorilla
with the fresh brown and black colors
covering his skin like a
holiday,
floating and watching the mountain. . . .
Talller
than the ivory mountain
with his ear in the wind's music,
jumping around
inside the holiday,
stronger than the radiant ocean,
bursting with color,
went the sorrow of King Kong the gorilla.
Out
of the ocean came the gorilla,
coming back to the mountain,
and the mountain
changed color
as it changed the music.
He let the mermaid float back into
the ocean;
that was the end of the holiday.
The
holiday of a magic gorilla
may flash and crash between ocean and mountain,
crash of soft music, flash of fresh color.
— Fifth & Sixth grade class