Sestina For My Dear
Jun. 8th, 2010 04:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
derniersoleilSo, I can't believe I forgot to post this before. This is probably the one piece of my writing I'm most proud of, and yet somehow I completely forgot to post it here when I was initially putting things up. It's a form of poetry called a sestina, and it was another one of my projects for Writer's Craft class last year.
Note: To quote the Wikipedia article, a sestina is a "highly structured poem consisting of six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet... for a total of thirty-nine lines. The same set of six words ends the lines of each of the six-line stanzas, but in a different order each time; if we number the first stanza's lines 123456, then the words ending the second stanza's lines appear in the order 615243, then 364125, then 532614, then 451362, and finally 246531... These six words then appear in the tercet as well..."
Sestina for My Dear
I love you, dear, with all my heart,
though love be all I have to give.
My love, I don’t know if I could bear
the thought of being made to leave
you at a time like this. I’d give the world
that I were not the one to shoulder this burden.
A heart, my dear, is a heavy burden,
though you have given me all your heart,
which I wouldn’t change for all the world.
There is nothing I wouldn’t give
to forget for a time that I must leave;
the thought is more than I can bear.
My love, you try so hard to bear
silently your constant burden-
pain. I’m not the first to leave;
my dear, it’s not like your heart
remains wholly yours to give,
broken as it has been by the world.
My dear, you would travel ‘round the world,
though you said it would be more than you could bear
in leaving me behind. So much you give,
unasked, when you’re in love. Dreams become a burden;
unfulfilled, they sit heavy on your heart.
Now, my love, you see why I must leave?
Even still, it is difficult to leave
the one you love best in all the world,
despite knowing deep in your heart
how very hard it would be to bear
knowing that you’ve become a burden,
and have run out of things to give.
My heart, my love, to you I give.
A parting gift, for when I leave-
my love, I won’t be coming back. The burden
imposed on you will lift, you’ll have the world
once more, my dear. Do try to bear
in mind the importance of a person’s heart.
But when your heart’s all you have left to give,
don't try to bear it, love -just leave.
We all know the world can be quite a burden.
Note: To quote the Wikipedia article, a sestina is a "highly structured poem consisting of six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet... for a total of thirty-nine lines. The same set of six words ends the lines of each of the six-line stanzas, but in a different order each time; if we number the first stanza's lines 123456, then the words ending the second stanza's lines appear in the order 615243, then 364125, then 532614, then 451362, and finally 246531... These six words then appear in the tercet as well..."
Sestina for My Dear
I love you, dear, with all my heart,
though love be all I have to give.
My love, I don’t know if I could bear
the thought of being made to leave
you at a time like this. I’d give the world
that I were not the one to shoulder this burden.
A heart, my dear, is a heavy burden,
though you have given me all your heart,
which I wouldn’t change for all the world.
There is nothing I wouldn’t give
to forget for a time that I must leave;
the thought is more than I can bear.
My love, you try so hard to bear
silently your constant burden-
pain. I’m not the first to leave;
my dear, it’s not like your heart
remains wholly yours to give,
broken as it has been by the world.
My dear, you would travel ‘round the world,
though you said it would be more than you could bear
in leaving me behind. So much you give,
unasked, when you’re in love. Dreams become a burden;
unfulfilled, they sit heavy on your heart.
Now, my love, you see why I must leave?
Even still, it is difficult to leave
the one you love best in all the world,
despite knowing deep in your heart
how very hard it would be to bear
knowing that you’ve become a burden,
and have run out of things to give.
My heart, my love, to you I give.
A parting gift, for when I leave-
my love, I won’t be coming back. The burden
imposed on you will lift, you’ll have the world
once more, my dear. Do try to bear
in mind the importance of a person’s heart.
But when your heart’s all you have left to give,
don't try to bear it, love -just leave.
We all know the world can be quite a burden.
