Which statement correctly describes Marilyn Hacker's use of the sestina form?

• A. It is used in both 'Forage Sestina' and 'Towards Autumn'.
• B. It is used only in 'Towards Autumn'.
• C. It is used in no other works.
• D. The form is used but without any end words.

Answer: (A)

The sestina relies on repeating end words in a fixed rotation across six stanzas and a final concluding section. Marilyn Hacker uses this exact structure in more than one of her poems, most clearly in both Forage Sestina and Towards Autumn. The six end words recur in a deliberate pattern, which gives the poems a sense of woven, cumulative meaning as images and ideas circle back with each stanza. That is why the statement that the form is used in both works is the best description: it shows Hacker applying the same formal framework in multiple pieces. The other ideas don’t fit because a sestina isn’t defined by being used in only one work, nor by having no end words, since the end words and their rotation are central to the form.