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Infographic: How to Write a Cinquain Poem

By Will Willingham 9 Comments

At its most fundamental, a cinquain poem is simply a poem written in five-line stanzas. Perhaps it’s only one stanza, five lines long. But dig a little deeper, and we find a wide variety of cinquain forms. There’s Adelaide Crapsey’s famous American Cinquain form, fashioned after the Japanese haiku and tanka. There’s the mirror cinquain, the butterfly, the reverse cinquain, and don’t forget the Spanish quintilla (not to be confused with the Spanish Inquisition, though no one expects the Spanish Inquisition!) and the Sicilian quintain (and truly, never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line, even if you’re just writing poetry).

We’ve been exploring the cinquain (aka quintain, aka quintet) all month. To wrap things up, we’ve put together this fun cinquain infographic.

Go cinquain!

How to Write a Cinquain Poem infographic

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Post and infographic by LW Lindquist.

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Will Willingham
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Will Willingham

Director of Many Things; Senior Editor, Designer and Illustrator at Tweetspeak Poetry
I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down.
Will Willingham
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Filed Under: cinquain, Infographics, poetry teaching resources

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Comments

  1. Katie says

    September 30, 2017 at 10:53 pm

    Garland
    or crown we write
    Butterfly or mirror
    even standard or reverse form
    Cinquain

    Reply
    • LW Lindquist says

      October 1, 2017 at 12:43 pm

      Love this, Katie. Sort of an ode to the cinquain. 😉

      Reply
      • Katie says

        October 1, 2017 at 12:46 pm

        Thank you:)

        Reply
  2. Bethany R. says

    October 1, 2017 at 12:36 pm

    Fabulous. This highlights one of my favorite things about Tweetspeak Poetry. They offer meaty educational tools and aren’t afraid to present them with humor. Isn’t it fun to learn this way?

    Reply
    • LW Lindquist says

      October 1, 2017 at 12:45 pm

      We do love to have smart fun. 🙂 I’m sure there’s a study out there (if not, perhaps one should be done) on the effects of laughter on learning. Maybe even on brain cells or neurons or something, the way it is with green tea. 😉

      Reply
  3. Katie says

    October 1, 2017 at 6:10 pm

    Express
    yourself in words
    share from deep down inside
    your ideas and thoughts, feelings
    Convey.

    Reply
  4. Katie says

    October 6, 2017 at 10:20 pm

    Hello fellow poem writers:)

    I think I have fallen in love with cinquains;)

    Here are some more I’ve written this week after being outside gardening or raking or just plain enjoying the autumn weather we’ve had here in MD.

    fall day
    come whatever
    may or may not come, now
    or then, sun slipping lower down
    sooner

    full moon
    at harvest time will be sublime
    shimmering on the fields
    shining above
    later

    &

    “Lantana”

    flower
    of bright delight
    eyelet, lace-like, pretty
    jagged and textured, deep green leaves
    pungent

    OR

    color
    so vivid, so bright in the sun
    praising the Creator
    delicately
    you shine

    AND
    lapsing back into one of my other favorite forms to have fun with – the acrostic:

    Lacey
    Airy
    Nary a
    Thorn
    A bee’s
    Natural
    Altar

    Reply
    • LW Lindquist says

      October 7, 2017 at 9:55 am

      I like that, “Fall day / come whatever.” 🙂

      Reply
      • Katie says

        November 24, 2017 at 6:15 pm

        Thank you:)

        Reply

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