Poetry in Forms Series: Cinquain
October 24, 2004 by John Hewitt
Cinquain, despite its French-sounding name, is an American poetry form that can be traced back to Adelaide Crapsey. Crapsey, influenced by Japanese haiku, developed this poetic system and used it to express brief thoughts and statements. Other poets who popularized the form were Carl Sandburg and Louis Utermeyer. While the form does not have the extensive popularity of haiku, it is often taught in public schools to children because of the form’s brief nature.
Most cinquain poems consist of a single, 22 syllable stanza, but they can be combined into longer works. A cinquain consists of five lines. The first line has two syllables, the second line has four syllables, the third line has six syllables and the fourth line has eight syllables, the final line has two syllables:
2
4
6
8
2
The line length is the only firm rule, but there are other guidelines that people have tried to impose from time to time.
Cinquain Guidelines
- Write in iambs (Two syllable groupings in which the first syllable is unstressed and the second syllable stressed. For Example: i DRANK she SMILED we TALKED i THOUGHT) For the last line of the cinquain, however, both syllables should be stressed, NICE BAR.
- Write about a noun. Cinquains generally fail if you try to make them about emotions, philosophies or other complex subjects. They should be about something concrete.
- Don’t try to make each line complete or express a single thought. Each line should flow into the next or the poem will sound static.
- Cinquains work best if you avoid adjectives and adverbs. This doesn’t mean you can’t have any, but focus on the nouns and the verbs. This almost always works best in a cinquain.
- The poem should build toward a climax. The last line should serve as some sort of conclusion to the earlier thoughts. Often, the conclusion has some sort of surprise built into it.
One possible, but not required, format is as follows:
Line 1: Title Noun
Line 2: Description
Line 3: Action
Line 4: Feeling or Effect
Line 5: Synonym of the initial noun.
If you look at my examples, I prefer to use the noun as a separate title, not as part of the cinquain. Also, only one of the three poems is written in iambs.
The smell
Everyone moves
To the window to look
Work stops and people start talking
Rain came
Opening Game
Game time
Season looked good
National champions
We told ourselves as we sat down
Not now
New Bar
Across
The street I went
To drink at the new bar
I drank she smiled we talked I thought
Nice bar
Below is an index to our 30 Poems in 30 Days Project:
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Why you should write poetry
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Writing About Yourself
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Writing About Issues
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Poetry of Place
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Persona Poems
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Developing Your Voice
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: About Forms and Lists
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Elegies and Memories
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: A Brief Glossary of Meter
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: The Good the Bad and the Meter
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Courting Controversy
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Syllabic Verse
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: What is Your Writing Process?
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Repetition
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Imagism
- 30 poems in 30 Days: Review Your Old Work
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: The Constraint as a Tool
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Joining the Community
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: About the Line
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Staying Positive
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Progression
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Breaking the Rules
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Confessional Poetry
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Say What You Want to Say
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Poetry Contests
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Free Verse
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Finding New Ways To Stay Inspired
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Word Choice
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: A Little Advice
- 30 Poems in 30 Days: Collaboration
Really good. You could make your website more flashy.
That would be really great as people like going to flashy
websites and not boring ones.
May.
——-
I’m not good at flashy. — John
No need for flash. The content is great. Thanks for giving an old writing teacher some new ideas - or at least a new way of explaining the important ideas.
David.
Thanks to the cinquain.It’s my first time to reda about it. It’ll be useful to teach a beginner of poetic writer.
Thanks!
I agree that you don’t need flash here—your work is good enough to interest me.I love writing cinquains.
When my daughter was in fourth or fifth grade, her class did poetry
combined with a science unit on weather and I had a great deal of fun
with cinquains on weather topics….Thanks for providing an excuse to remember that—and maybe do some more.
In my school 5th grade we are working on cinquains. I think it’s awsome and cool. I’m doing one on Martin Luther Kings jr. Nice cinquains. keep up the good work
a very informative site. thank you. no flash, if you please
I HAVE ENJOYED THE TIPS THAT ARE HERE GIVEN, FOR MY BRAIN IS IN KNOTS MY AND POEMS ARE NOT WRITTEN …THAKS
YOUR INFORMATION IS GOOD, BUT I THINK IT WILL BE AWESOM IF YOU GUYS EXPLAIN WHAT A SYLLABLE IS.
ANY WAYS ITS AWESOM, AND PERFECT
NATI
am not an english teacher but i wanna learn all of wnglish-grammmar,poetry,essay,and all. as a science teacher , i think writing cinquains may make my students more interested in learning science.
a short poetry ’bout genetics, why not? fantastic!
Thanks for the delightful site. Flash is only Flash. I am working with special children and heard about cinquain, Your site is very informative.
HEY, I LUV DA SITE. DID YA HERE ‘BOUT TOM CRUISE’S BABY, HER NAME IS SURI, TOO. YOUR SITE IS THE
BEST IT HELPED ME GET AN A!
This site is great! I didnt understand what cinquain was until I read more about it on your site so.. thanks again!!
My teacher taught me TOTALLY different. I think you should check
your information out.
I’m pretty comfortable with my presentation of the rules Emily. If your teacher teaches it differently, they must be getting their information from different sources than the ones I have used for all these years.
really good and amazing poems
these are unbelievable poems!WOW!Excellent Gorgeous
I was thrilled to run across this article! Cinquains are one of my favorite forms to write and I
was discouraged to read on other sites that it should include a specific number of words, certain
types of words in certain lines, etc. This was not what I have been doing…I have simply been
using the syllabic form. I hated the idea of incorporating those other rules. They just don’t work
for me. Needless to say, I was comforted to read that my initial introduction to cinquain was correct.
Thank you.
Susan
I like it very much it help me in my projects about poems
Hey, thanks for the info! It’s really helpful for my Language Arts poetry project… I’ll never forget how to write a cinquain!
hey, thanks for the info! its really helfpul for my language arts poetry project… i’ll never forget how to write a cinqain