A Stormy Intro to Cinquains

And now for a (potentially) "new-to-you" poetic form... the cinquain!

The cinquain is a highly structured form of poetry that commands attention to word choice, word meaning, syllabication, and parts of speech, while at the same time expressing a meaningful message. To the unskilled writer, the focus often becomes following the rigor of the format rules rather than writing to create meaning or to achieve a musical sense in the poetry.

Due to the structured nature of the cinquain form, teachers often choose to introduce a modified version of the cinquain thereby eliminating the need for syllable counting resulting in a more free form approach. Here I will attempt the poetic "Full Monty" and go all out to try and meet the syllabication requirements as noted in the format.

True Cinquain Format

Line 1: 1 word title (noun)2 syllables
Line 2: 2 descriptive words (adjectives) 4 syllables
Line 3: 3 words that express action 6 syllables
Line 4: 4 words that express feeling 8 syllables
Line 5: 1 word (synonyms or reference to title in line 1) 2 syllables

Here's quick draft of my own cinquain, with words separated "syllabically":

Down/pour
sud/den, heav/y
rol/ling, drench/ing, fall/ing
vi/o/lent and peace/ful dreams
cloud/burst
While some "meaningfulness" is in the eye of the beholder, clearly there are no secrets of the universe in this poem, but it does otherwise fit within the cinquain parameters. Perhaps with some additional massaging it might mean more. I am, however, pretty pleased with the initial results.

Care to give it a go?

Poem du Jour: Word-type Cinquain

In class yesterday, the student teacher with whom I am working this semester presented a mini-lesson on writing two types of cinquains: word-type (which has a prescribed "formula" of specific words, parts of speech per line) and, what he termed, a "straight" type (which is more open, specifying only the numebr of words per line).

Regardless of which "type" of cinquain is being crafted, some elements remain the same: 5 lines, with the following word count for each line, line 1--one word (the poem's focus), line 2--two words, line 3--three words, line 4--a phrase of three to four words, and line 5--a single word, often a synonym that restates line 1.

Here's the word-type cinquain I drafted while sitting in the back corner of the room (thankfully near a window), the location from which I generally observe class:

Houseplant
wilting, browning
common, dry, unkempt
leaves turn toward the window--
Green Schefflera.