Day 11 ~ Quintain (or Quintet) Poem for #NationalPoetryMonth and "30 poems in 30 days"

A quintain (or quintet) is any poetic stanza that contains five lines, such as cinquain, tanka, limerick, gogyohka and pentastich, (What the heck are those last two about)? “YaDu” is a five-line poetic from Burma. My point is that lots of poems fall into the “five –line” category, as well as free verse and blank verse (yes, those are different from each other – we will cover those on another day). 

But don’t go rushing off to write just yet – let’s explore this a bit:

Depending on which form of quintain you choose, it will have specific rules about rhyming (or not) and syllable or word count. And of course, it would still be considered a quintain/quintet if it had no form at all, other than being five lines long. A quintain can be a stand-alone poem of 5 lines or you can string along several 5-line stanzas to create a longer poem. Thus far, we have already done one version of a cinquain as well as a tanka poem. However, as long as it has only five lines, your poem would be classified as a “quintain.” So, all cinquains, tanka, and limericks are quintains but not all quintains are cinquains, tanka, or limericks. J

I haven’t used “quintain” as a specific form in this yearly challenge (other than some of the poems we have used have contained 5 lines), so I have yet to create my own poem as an example. So, feel free to use one we have already done (cinquain or tanka) or just create any poem, about anything but keep your poem (or each stanza) to five lines.

Wow – freedom!! (Which could be seen as making things easier or harder depending on which way your creative juices are flowin’ today).

If you want to check out some unique, rather specific poems of this type, here are some options:

Poetry Magnum Opus - Quintilla

Writers Digest - Gogyohka

Looking for some inspiration? I forgot to mention that this entire week (April 7-13, 2019) is National Library Week if that is anything you feel like centering your poem around. And today is National Pet Day (among a number of other “special days”) if that is something that works as a prompt for you.

Here is a pic of five elephants to remind you to use five lines (and maybe they will prove to be some inspiration). LOL

Okay – go create! I’ll be back tomorrow with another poetry form to try! Cheers!!

PLEASE REMEMBER ~ any poetry found on this blog, written by me, is my personal property and may not be used without my permission, other than sharing it as an example in a lesson or to read it to someone. The same goes for any poems that are shared in the comments of this blog or elsewhere online as a result of this challenge. They are the creative property of the person who writes them. These poems are their original work and no one may use them without their permission. It is understood that they own the copyright to them as soon as they post them. Thanks so much!

Also, if you choose to post your poems on your own blog ~ that’s awesome. But PLEASE don’t just copy and paste my daily instructions, but rather post your poem on your blog or your FB wall or wherever AND LINK BACK TO THIS BLOG POST for others to come here to read the instructions. I’ve spent considerable time researching the poetry forms and writing them up to share with you. Thanks for respecting my work.

Photo by “Christel” at Pixabay