Poetry Development: Introducing the Cinquain
One of the projects I’m working on involves writing a lot of poetry—actually, several of the projects I’m working on involve writing a lot of poetry—so I thought I’d share some of the things I learnt about poetry along the way. This journey will be a regularly scheduled feature for Mondays. Join me if you dare. When I started, I already wrote poetry—freeform, haiku, whatever rhyming form appealed to me, but nothing truly disciplined outside the haiku. I’d heard of cinquains, but had no idea what they were, so I went looking. Here’s what I found out: A cinquain belongs to a group of poetical forms known as quintains. Quintains are poems that are five lines long, and some alternative types are listed below. This section focuses on cinquains, which tell a small story and are made up of both adjectives and verbs, feelings and a conclusion. Cinquains were created by an American poet called Adelaide Crapsey, who was said to be inspired by the strict rules governing the Japan...