American Cinquain

Like last week, this week’s form is also one I shared more than ten years ago. However, in checking my research I discovered that there are actually two different versions of this form. This week I’ll explore the American Cinquain, and next week I’ll take a look at the French Cinquain.

The American cinquain is credited to Adelaide Crapsey (1878 – 1914), who was inspired to create it after reading A Hundred Verses From Old Japan, a translation of 100 haiku by 100 poets. The form consists of twenty-two syllables set in a single, unrhymed, five line stanza in the following format:

Line 1: Two syllables
Line 2: Four syllables
Line 3: Six syllables
Line 4: Eight syllables
Line 5: Two syllables

And if that format isn’t to your liking, you could also try one of the variations:

The Didactic Cinquain
Line 1: 1 word title (noun)
Line 2: 2 descriptive words (adjectives)
Line 3: 3 words that express action
Line 4: 4 words that express feeling
Line 5: 1 word (synonym or reference to title in line 1)

Or the simple form:
Line 1: One word
Line 2: Two words
Line 3: Three words
Line 4: Four words
Line 5: One word

Or a combination:
Line 1: One, two syllable word, preferably a noun
Line 2: Two words, total of four syllables, preferably adjectives
Line 3: Three words, total of six syllables, expressing action
Line 4: Four words, total of eight syllables, expressing a feeling
Line 5: One word, two syllables, referencing back to the first word

Other variations have evolved from experimentation by other poets and include:

Reverse Cinquain: five-line syllabic verse of the pattern 2 / 8 / 6 / 4 / 2

Mirror Cinquain: a sequence of a standard cinquain followed by a reverse cinquain

Butterfly Cinquain: nine-line syllabic verse of the pattern 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 2 / 8 / 6 / 4 / 2

Crown Cinquain: a sequence of five cinquains

Garland Cinquain: a sequence of six cinquains in which the final cinquain is composed of lines from the preceding five (generally L1 from S1, L2 from S2, L3 from S3, etc...)


And now, my examples. In the orginal post I only did one (because I didn't know about the variations) but for this post I'm adding a couple of the variations.

My original cinquain:

Midnight
darkly shining
perfumed breezes wafting
anticipation fills me up . . .
moonrise.

A didactic cinquain:

Thundercloud
black, menacing
racing, roiling, threatening
fearful anticipation, excited dread
cumulonimbus

Simple form cinquain:

light
dancing on
waves racing shoreward,
shards of light reflecting
sunward

Combination form cinquain:

Goblin
slippery cruel
grasping clawing slinking
greedy fearsome loathing kindness
golem

And that’s all you get. I strongly urge you to give the cinquain a try yourself. It’s pretty easy, but if you want a bit of a challenge try the Didactic or the Combination cinquains. They’re a wee bit trickier.

Happy writing!