The Cinquain Challenge: Crapsey Form 2

This week, we’re looking at a second type of cinquain. It’s got a few more syllables than the first, and has to be my favourite type. I’ve called it the Crapsey Form 2, because it was the second form I’ve heard of American poet, Adelaide Crapsey, creating.

For those of you who are new to this series, Adelaide Crapsey was an American poet who was inspired by the rules of Japanese poetry to create her own poetical form, the cinquain.

A cinquain is a five-line poem that has a set number of syllables (or word types) per line. Sometimes the title of a cinquain acts as a sixth line.

The second type of cinquain we’ll look at has no name, so I’ve called it Crapsey Form 2. This form has two syllables in the first line, four in the second, six in the third, eight in the fourth and only two in the fifth, giving it a diamond shape on the page.

Here’s an example, inspired by last week’s verses:

Happy

The two dogs run

Chasing the fleeing ball

While their human friends keep walking

Best friends

And here’s another one.

Spirits

Screaming their grief

Souls bereft of life’s joy

Regretting joys lost, life taken

Vengeful

Why don’t you give it a try? Try writing at least one cinquain in Crapsey Form 1 for each day of the week. They don’t take a lot of time, but they can be a bit tricky. Here’s one way you might want to approach them:

·         Decide on a topic.

·         Think of words, phrases, feelings and ideas that relate to your topic and work out the order you want to express those things in.

·         Work out how to express each idea in the right number of syllables for the line it’s on.

·         Write your cinquain

·         Check there are the right number of syllables on each line.

·         Centre the poem on your page

Or you can just write them as you go, remembering to check your syllables and centre your poem at the end.

Enjoy!