Friday, April 8, 2011

Day 8 ~ Let's Write a Cinquain Poem (Pattern 1)

Cinquain Poem ~ there’s more than one style of cinquain poem – so we’ll call this “Pattern One.”

Cinq is French for FIVE ~ this poem has five lines that follow a specific pattern.

This is a short five-lined poem that doesn’t have an actual title; rather, the FIRST line (one word with 2 syllables or two 1-syllable words) becomes the title. Each line starts with a capital letter but has no ending punctuation. It does not rhyme and in this version you count the number of SYLLABLES per line and each line has specific requirements. The first line has 2 syllables; each line increases by 2 syllables until the last line, which returns to 2 syllables:

1st line ~ two syllables – the subject (or title) or your poem
2nd line ~ four syllables that describe the title/subject
3rd line ~ six syllables that express action
4th line ~ eight syllables that express a thought or feeling
5th line ~ two syllables synonym for title (restates your subject using a different word)

Be sure to COUNT OUT the syllables for each line. I love this style poetry and wanted to share a couple of poems I wrote years ago:
Children
A gift from God
Grace our lives for a time
Remain in our hearts forever
Precious


Stephanie Abney ~   © 1999
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Comfort
Feeling secure
Where judgment has no place
Wrapped in the safety of your arms
Husband


Stephanie Abney ~   © 1998


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay Stephanie. This gets a little harder each time. Here's my 8th try.

Mother
God’s helping hands
Humble, steadfast and strong
Foundation of her heav’ly home
Mother

Stephanie Abney said...

Wow, Mary - I LOVE it. :) Nicely done! Thanks.

Vicki said...

Heaven
A place you go
where our dear Father lives
He lovingly waits for us there
Our home

Stephanie Abney said...

Interesting, Vicki - that's very similar to one I wrote yesterday and already have saved to post tomorrow for the next style of cinquain. Guess great minds think alike or we're just feeling heaven near. Very nice. Thanks for posting it!!