Poetry Is Pretentious

Vonnegut Sestet

The Kurt Vonnegut Sestet is a simple form. It is a 6 line poem. It must rhyme, but the author gets to choose the rhyme scheme. The only requirements are that you must make it as good as you possibly can, and when it’s finished, it must be destroyed. 

Sam Kilkenny
Vonnegut Sestet

 In a letter to a highschool class Kurt Vonnegut once gave this assignment:

“Write a six-line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Don’t show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever…Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash receptacles. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside you, and you have made your soul grow.”

The Kurt Vonnegut Sestet is a simple form. It is a 6 line poem. It must rhyme, but the author gets to choose the rhyme scheme. The only requirements are that you must make it as good as you possibly can, and when it’s finished, it must be destroyed. 

Rules of the Vonnegut Sestet

  1. It is a poem of 6 lines
  2. It must rhyme in some way
  3. There is no set rhyme scheme or meter, so get creative!
  4. Try your best!
  5. Throw it away when you’re done

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AuthorS

Sam and Corey started Poetry is Pretentious to demystify poetry. More importantly, their 5th grade teacher told them they couldn’t go through life as a team. 18 years later they’re here to prove her wrong.

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