The Cinquain Challenge: The Reverse Cinquain

This week, we’re looking at a third type of cinquain. It can be created using either a Crapsey Form 1 or Crapsey Form 2 cinquain as a base..

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 third type of cinquain we’ll look at is called a Reverse Cinquain. This form reverses the order of the lines, with the first line having two syllables, the second line having eight syllables, the third line having six syllables, the fourth having four syllables, and the fifth returning again to two..

Here’s an example, inspired by the squawking rosellas outside my window:

Squawking

The rosellas fly, elusive

despite red and blue coats

amongst green leaves

Hidden

And here’s another one.

Starships

Awaiting flight plans, they orbit

taking shuttles of hope,

the starstruck all wanting

new worlds

Why don’t you give it a try? Try writing at least one reverse cinquain 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; and
• Centre the poem on your page.

Or you can just write them as you go, letting inspiration take you where it will, but remember to check your syllables and centre your poem at the end.

Enjoy!