Cinquains (or Five-Lined Poems) are characterized by precise use of imagery and an economy of language. "There is a laborious effect for momentary attainment, tersely terminated by the wholly unanticipated."
Cinquains follow an accentual and syllabic pattern of the iambic foot. Accumulation of energy in lines one through four followed by the inevitable collapse in "the turn" before the fifth line. Titles are not casual but function as active “sixth lines,” conveying important meaning to the poem.
Adelaide Crapsey's "Triad" with /'s representing syllable breaks.
Title TRIAD Syllables
Line 1 These / be 2
Line 2 Three / si/lent / things: 4
Line 3 The / fall/ing / snow… / the / hour 6
Line 4 Be/fore / the / dawn… / the / mouth / of / one 8
Line 5 Just / dead 2
TRIAD
These be
Three silent things:
The falling snow...the hour
Before dawn...the mouth of one
Just dead.
Anonymous Cinquain Entries from American International School (Grades 7th - 11th)
THE LIFE OF BAMBOO
So tall
Moving around
All talking with the wind
Maybe they will make a cabana
Then...silence.
(9th Grade)
CITY
The smoke
Flows across the
Field, it doesn't fight
It just advances forward and
Draws in.
(8th Grade)
THE NATURE WALK
It starts
With a mango
It ends with the cow happy
I don't know why but it is happy
Cow pie
(7th Grade)
COWS
The beast
Creeps up to me
It extends its tongue...I
Give him a red mango that is
Rotten.
(9th Grade)
HORNED BEAST
Look out,
Ravenous cows,
Await for you to come
Morosely they are awaiting, for
Mangoes.
(11th Grade)
WHERE ANIMALS DIE
Pasture
Is horrible
Cows look disappointed...
Killing animals as a job?
Not rare...
(7th Grade)
POISON
Deadly snake
Why do we judge;
Your style is not our judgement.
You live to survive, we live to criticize
No more.
(11th Grade)
HUGE CLOUDS
Those were
big, white, weird clouds
They swam on the blue sky
Looked as the big dreams of the child
Rain came.
(8th Grade)
