The Air in Me Breathes The Beauty of Cinquain

The Air I Breathe Includes Cinquains

I am one day late in posting this week's blog...but the dog ate my homework.

The art of writing Cinquains is taught in many school systems from about middle school all the way up through college but sadly has lost a lot of steam over the years. Here’s hoping we can stir the air to revive this beautiful form of writing.

Before we get to the rules, here is just a little history. Cinquain is pronounced ‘sin-kane’ not ‘sin-kwane’ and has been used for hundreds of years, starting in Europe where writers like sixteenth and seventeenth-century poets such as Sir Philip Sidney, George Herbert, Edmund Waller, and John Donne frequently employed the form, creating numerous variations. *

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www.poets.org has a more complete history of early cinquain writing.

Edgar Allen Poe employed cinquain in his writing with much success then about 100 years ago an American Woman by the name of Adelaide Crapsey created the American Cinquain using the following criteria. Miss Crapsey designed American Cinquain after the Japanese form of Haiku and Tanka.

THE RULES OF A CINQUAIN

According to www.poetry4kids.com “there are only three rules for writing cinquain

There are actually many different ways to write a cinquain, so I’m just going to teach you how to write a traditional cinquain, as it was defined by the poet who invented it.”

These are the rules:

1.    Cinquains are five lines long.

2.    They have 2 syllables in the first line, 4 in the second, 6 in the third, 8 in the fourth line, and just 2 in the last line.

3.    Cinquains do not need to rhyme, but you can include rhymes if you want to.

Now that you have a little history and know the rules to writing cinquain, I want to introduce you to Eileen Grantors, author of 7 books; her latest is titled “The Pinata-Maker’s Daughter”. Eileen has provided us with three cinquains that tells a brief story, makes us smile and adheres to the three simple rules of writing cinquain.

Puppies

Chubby butts,

So silly, naughty,

Fall asleep mid-play,

Luvies.

Ocean

Blue, eternal

Roaring, crashing, foaming,

At high tide or low,

Power.

Bird song

Caw, coo, whistle,

Wake up, morning is here,

Listen to all who sing along,

Freedom.

My thanks to Eileen for helping us see how easy it is to write this ancient form of poetry.  I would hope that you would be inspired to write your own cinquain. It takes practice but you can do it.

If you would like to read more of Eileen’s work, some of her short stories and poetry can be found at www.authorsden.com.

I hope we’ve stirred the air in you to write your own cinquain.

Next week I’ll post the response to last week’s challenge to write a 5-7-5 senryu around your thoughts regarding the outcome of the George Zimmerman trial.

As always thanks for reading The Air in Me