The Cinquain Challenge: Form 6—The Crown Cinquain

This week, we’re looking at yet another form of cinquain—the Crown Cinquain. Again, it uses either a Crapsey Form 1 or a Crapsey Form 2 as a base, but this time it has five cinquain verses linked together to form a single large poem that is 25-lines long.

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

Here’s an example, inspired by thoughts of a magical world:

The fey

Glittering bright

Form gems on ancient trees

Brightening the forest giants

Glowing

Shadows

Flee from their light

Flee from their laughter,

The gleam of their smiles, their laughter

Their swords

The woods

Are protected

Defended by fierceness

That terrifies despite its size

An inch

A foot

Three feet at most

Capricious, but loyal

Caring for their homes, their treasures

Their joys

They dance

To celebrate

To mark another day

To mark the seasons, the solstice

Fairies

If you tilt the poem on its side, you can see why it is called a crown.

Why don’t you give it a try? Try writing at least one crown 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!