The Cinquain

I chose to write about cinquains! Cinquains are short poems consisting of 5 lines. This poem form stood out to me because it's short enough to make you want to keep reading more and long enough for the concept to stick with you. Too often, our lives are spent running around and preparing for the future, but it is so easy to incorporate poetry into our lives with these. Reading them only takes a minute, and they're so versatile

The cinquain poem form used to include all five line poems, but now adheres to a set of guidelines. For example, the "cookie cutter" cinquain has a 2, 4, 6, 8, 2  syllable pattern and can follow a variety of rhyme schemes including ababb or abaab. There are many subgroups that distinguish between various different syllable patterns, including mirror cinquains and reverse cinquains. A reverse cinquain is a five line poem with the syllable patter of 2, 8, 6, 4, 2, while a mirror cinquain is a cinquain with a reverse cinquain at the end. However, this form is extremely versatile and includes all types of five lined poems.

Below are a few examples of cinquains!

"To Helen" by Edgar Allen Poe

 Helen, thy beauty is to me
          Like those Nicean barks of yore,
     That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
          The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
          To his own native shore.


"The World" by George Herbert

   Love built a stately house, where Fortune came,
     And spinning fancies, she was heard to say
     That her fine cobwebs did support the frame,
     Whereas they were supported by the same;
     But Wisdom quickly swept them all away.