Sunday, April 19, 2015

Day 19 - 2015 How to Write a Cinquain Poem (Pattern One) for #NationalPoetryMonth “30 poems in 30 days”


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:

Comfort
Feeling secure
Where judgment has no place
Wrapped in the safety of your arms
Husband


Stephanie Abney ~   © 1998
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Children
A gift from God
Grace our lives for a time
Remain in our hearts forever
 Precious

Stephanie Abney ~   © 1999



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3 comments:

Vicki said...

Babies
Smiles melt your heart
All laughter and giggles
Make my old heart full to bursting
Heaven

Stephanie Abney said...

Very sweet, Vicki!!

Heidi L. Murphy said...

I sure enjoy your poetry, girls. Here's my cinquain:
http://murph4slaw.blogspot.com/2015/04/train-cinquain.html