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GCSE English Literature · key term
The final six-line section of a sonnet.
Used by AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas
Paper 2
A six-line stanza. ‘War Photographer’ contains four sestets.
Revise: War PhotographerThe poem consists of four six-line stanzas, or sestets. It has a recurring ABBCDD rhyme pattern, allowing for some imperfect rhymes. In stanza 1, ‘rows’ and ‘glows’, and ‘Mass’ and ‘grass’, are full rhymes.
The final six lines of a sonnet.
Distinguish the early turn at “Yet” from the formal octave–sestet division after the eighth line.
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Paper 2
Revise: Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802The poem is a Petrarchan sonnet: fourteen lines with an octave, or opening eight lines, followed by a sestet, or final six. Its rhyme scheme is ABBAABBA CDCDCD. Although it is printed as one continuous stanza, rhyme and the change in thought establish these two sections.
Component 1
A six-line stanza.
Revise: I Wandered Lonely as a CloudThe poem has four six-line stanzas, or sestets. Each consists of a four-line quatrain followed by a rhyming couplet, giving the pattern ABABCC. In stanza 1, ‘cloud’ rhymes with ‘crowd’, ‘hills’ with ‘daffodils’, and ‘trees’ with ‘breeze’.
A six-line section of a poem, particularly the final six lines of a Petrarchan sonnet.
