Cinquain, Poetic Form Exercise Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

CINQUAIN:  From the French, meaning "a grouping of five."  

The Cinquain has five lines of two, four, six, eight, and two syllables, respectively, with a total syllabic count of 22.

The cinquain should have no more than two full sentences.

The Handbook of Poetic Forms suggests:  Do not add words to fill out this form; write with feeling, but do not allow your writing to become cloyingly sweet; build toward a climax and put a surprise into your last two lines.  Rather than parts of speech, be concerned with thoughts and images.

The cinquain came to popularity by Adelaide Crapsy, who devised the form back in the early 1900's. She was so influenced by the Japanese forms, tanka and haiku, that she developed her own poetic system which she then called cinquain.

The most famous of the few Crapsy cinquains from her The Complete Poems is:

TRIAD

These be
Three silent things:
The falling snow... the hour
Before the dawn... the mouth of one
Just dead.

Cinquains, though they have never become very popular, have always attracted a number of poets who are still developing the form.

Why not try your own here in this thread! Come on! We dare you!    :p