I have learned a lot about the poetic form of Cinquain this month and this knowledge even lead to a discussion in my Summer Writing Intensive Camp which is taking place this week and a week in August.
(By the way, if this intrigues you, check it out here.)
We were talking about rhythm, meter, cadence and voice primarily in prose when I used these two cinquains - a British and an American - as examples.
Before I share the poems themselves,
The cinquain I wrote today has an inverted rhyme scheme and now that I know there are so many versions of the same form I am keeping it anyway.
SO! I wanted to introduce this alternate Cinquain since it fascinates me and fits my love for haiku:
The American Cinquain was created by poet Adelaide Crapsey. Here are her form parameters:
An American Cinquain is a short, five lined poem with the following syllable count: 2, 4, 6, 8, 2.
The most popular form is as follows:
Line 1: Noun
Line 2: Description of Noun
Line 3: Action
Line 4: Feeling or Effect
Line 5: Synonym of the initial noun.
An ENGLISH Cinquain, which is a five-lined poem with a rhyme scheme that goes like this A,B,B,A,A:
Here is a British and an American Cinquain covering the same topics.
Matchmaking fool who adores sound
Even chocolate doesn’t taste this sweet
Nor wind in the palms or chickadees tweet
Cloth-bound, read aloud this holy ground
Words, well chosen, in meter – astound
Now some impromptu Americanization of this same poem
Words Woo
Catch vowel sounds
Cloth bound, mouth reads aloud
Not even chocolate touches
Romance
So - there you have it - The Cinquain.
