HOW TO WRITE a CINQUAIN
A cinquain poem has five lines. The word comes from the French cinq,
which means five.
The best-known form of cinquain poetry was created in the early 1900s by
a poet named Adelaide Crapsey. These cinquains are similar to haiku in
that the rules for writing them are based on syllables.
Cinquain poems have the following pattern:
Line 1 2 syllables
Line 2 4 syllables
Line 3 6 syllables
Line 4 8 syllables
Line 5 2 syllables
An alternate version of the cinquain poem, often called a “word cinquain” is
based on words, instead of syllables. “Word cinquains” have the following
pattern:
Line 1 1 word
Line 2 2 words
Line 3 3 words
Line 4 4 words
Line 5 1 word
There are no specific rules about writing a cinquain other than that it must
have five lines and the correct syllable count (or, if writing a word cinquain,
the correct word count).
Syllable Cinquain
Cloud Dreams
Summer Day Dreams
Watching different shapes
Comforted by a watching eye
God’s work
Word Cinquain
ELEPHANT
Is massive
It trudges along
Makes me feel tiny
Mammal