Mom’s Musings

Recently I was looking through Write Source 2000: A Guide to Writing, Thinking, & Learning, a reference book that we use at the middle school. Since I’m interested in poetry, I meandered on over to that section of the book and came across a fun and easy poetry form called the CINQUAIN.

There are two ways to compose this non-rhyming poem of five lines, by SYLLABLES or by WORDS.

For the SYLLABLE CINQUAIN, the pattern goes this way:

First line        2 syllables

Second line        4 syllables

Third line        6 syllables

Fourth line        8 syllables

Fifth line        2 syllables

Oh, just one more thing: The first line is the TITLE of your poem, and the fifth line restates the title in some way.

Here’s my example of a SYLLABLE CINQUAIN:

COFFEE

My morning drink

I pour it from the pot

Warming aroma, bitter tang

Java

For the WORD CINQUAIN, the pattern goes this way:

First line        1 word

Second line        2 words

Third line        3 words

Fourth line        4 words

Fifth line        1 word

Here’s my example of a WORD CINQUAIN:

SCRABBLE

Word game

Strategy and spelling

Fit the words together

Spell