SESTETT  , the name given to the second

division of a sonnet, which must consist of an octave, of eight lines, succeeded by a sestett, of six lines . In the usual course the rhymes are arranged abc abc, but this is not necessary . Early Italian sonnets, and in particular those of Dante, often close with the rhyme-arrangement abc cba; but in languages. where the sonority of syllables is not so great as it is in Italian, it is dangerous to leave a period of five lines between one rhyme and another . In the quatorzain, there is properly speaking no sestett, but a quatrain followed by a couplet, as in the case of Shakespeare's so-called " Sonnets." Another form of sestett has only two rhymes, ab ab ~ ab; as is the case in Gray's famous sonnet " On the Death of Richard West." The sestett should mark the turn of emotion in the sonnet; as a rule it may be said. that the octave having been more or less objective, in the sestett reflection should make its appearance, with a tendency to the subjective manner . For example, in Matthew Arnold's ingenious " The Better Part," the rough inquirer, who has had his own way in the octave, is replied to as soon as the sestett com- mences:- " So answerest thou ? But why not rather say: Hath Man no second life ? Pitch this one high . More strictly, then, the inward judge obey l Was Christ a man like us ? Ah l let us try If we, then, too, can be such men as he l ' " Wordsworth and Milton are both remarkable for the dignity with which they conduct the downward wave of the sestett in their sonnet . The French sonneteers of the 16th century, with Ronsard at their head, preferred the softer sound of the arrangement aab ccb I . The German poets have usually wavered between the English and the Italian forms .