Cinquain

A cinquain is a five-line poem, most often the form that counts two, four, six, eight and two syllables to the line.

Adelaide Crapsey's cinquain follows 2, 4, 6, 8, 2 syllables.

Listen...
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees
And fall.

Adelaide Crapsey, "November Night", 1915

What it is

A cinquain is short and tight. The syllable count rises to the middle and falls back, so the poem swells and then drops. Like the haiku, it works by compressing one moment into very few words.

How to write one

Count the syllables on your fingers as you draft: two, four, six, eight, two. Start with a single noun for line one, such as "Frost", then build outward with a description, an action and a feeling, and land on a short closing word. Many first drafts run long in the middle, so trim adjectives until each line fits its count. If a line will not fit, change the word, not the count, or you have written a different form.

Why it matters to a writer or editor

The cinquain is a good exercise in the last line. Because the final two syllables carry so much, a writer learns to save the strongest word for the end.

Frequently asked questions

Who invented the cinquain?

The American poet Adelaide Crapsey developed this version around 1913, drawing on Japanese forms like the haiku and tanka. Cinquain also names other five-line forms.