Poetry Made Easy (Part 2): A Simple Guide to Cinquains

The Cinquain:

Moving on to another short form of poetry, the cinquain is another form of poetry that’s brief, effective and enjoyable to read. Cinquains’ are a form of poetry that shares many similarities with the tanka and haiku and are even said to be inspired by them, making them a great next choice of form to attempt if you enjoyed writing haikus and tankas. Like both forms, all three involve fewer lines and follow a predetermined syllable count. So, without further ado, here's a simple guide to cinquains!

Cinquains are composed of 5 lines and often follow a syllable count of 2-4-6-8-2. There are other forms and styles that exist, but this format seems to be the most common in American cinquains. The cinquain form that’s most commonly written today was developed by Adelaide Crapsey, in which her poems often followed the syllable structure highlighted above, as well as a certain accent structure that I’ll briefly explain below, since it will require some explanation. 

What are syllable stresses?

Now, here’s where things might get a little complicated. Along with a set syllable count, cinquains also have a common requirement of having a certain amount of syllable ‘stresses’ per line. But what is a stressed syllable?

From the previous examples of haikus and tankas, you probably had to pay extra attention to syllable counts, and over how many syllables each word/line had. For example ‘sleepy’ has two syllables. Taking it a step further, if you say the word photo out loud, which syllable do you place extra emphasis on? Ie, what part of the word is stretched longer, and sounds higher and louder. If you answered with the first syllable, then you’re correct putting a heavy emphasis on the second syllable would sound weird. In short, it’s pronounced slee-pee and not slee-pee, where the second half is emphasized. 

Though this is a bit of a confusing topic to grasp at first (and believe me, I’m still trying to understand it too), like most skills it ends up being a matter of practice and repetition. This article by The Poetry Place gives a good summary and guide on how to identify stressed syllables and expands on the points I mentioned here. It provides a decent amount of examples on what stressed syllables look like, so I recommend reading it if you want a more in depth explanation. 

As well, although this is a concept that takes time to get used to, cinquains are probably the best way to practice due to the short syllable and line requirements that make it easier to focus on keeping things brief. In terms of stressed and unstressed syllables, cinquains are among the easiest out there. 

Tip: A good way to figure out if a syllable in a word is stressed or not is to play around with it. Say the word out loud and exaggerate/place emphasis on different syllables. If it sounds wrong, then it’s probably not the right stress.

Putting the Cinquain Together

Now that that’s out of the way, we can go back to going over the American cinquain format. Taking the same syllable count per line (2-4-6-8-2) further, the typical cinquain incorporates a specific syllable stress pattern along with it:

• The first line has 2 syllables and 1 stress.
• The second line and 4 syllables and 2 stresses.
• The third line has 6 syllables and 3 stresses.
• The fourth line has 8 syllables and 4 stresses.
• The last line has 2 syllables and 1 stress, again. 

Example: 

To get a better understanding of what a cinquain looks like, it’s best to take a look at some examples. Here’s an example from Adelaide Crapsey, titled November Night:

Listen. . (2)
With faint dry sound, (4)
Like steps of passing ghosts, (6)
The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees (8)
And fall. (2)

Try it yourself. 

Now that you’ve been given a basic guide to what cinquains are, it’s time to try and write one yourself. That being said, if the whole stressed and unstressed syllable concept still sounds a bit confusing, then there’s no need to ‘stress’ too much about it for now. I’d recommend writing a cinquain by just paying attention to the syllable count for now, without worrying about the stresses. Then, once you’ve gotten used to the format, take a look at your poems and try to figure out where the stresses fall. It’s mostly an exercise in patience and like any skill, will take some practice.

If you found this article helpful, then feel free to share or just use it as a reference. I hope you can use this to write your own cinquains in the near future.

Cheers!

Image sources:

1: (Cinquain example by Maria Heron, from Poetry Hunter) https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/cinquain-2-4-6-8-2-the-sky/

2 (stressed vs unstressed syllables from Lead In Literacy): https://leadinliteracy.com/what-is-the-schwa-sound-how-do-you-teach-it/