If a line has too many syllables or not enough syllables, see if you can change some of the words to get the right number of syllables. I recommend your count your syllables with your fingers as you write each line. To turn these ideas into a cinquain poem, we need to say them in a way that we have five lines with the right number of syllables on each line. These are just four ideas, but they are not yet a poem. It’s okay to write your ideas on one piece of paper and then write your poem on another piece of paper.įor example, I know several things about ice cream, so I’ve put them down here: Think of as many things as you can and write them down on a piece of paper. Once you know what you are going to write about, you need to brainstorm ideas about your topic. If your favorite thing is pizza, soccer, your cat, etc., you could also use “soccer,” “pizza,” or “my cat” as the first line of your cinquain. This is convenient since the words “ice cream” have two syllables, so I can probably use this phrase as the first line of my cinquain. Since I like ice cream, I think I’ll write a cinquain about ice cream. Write about something that happens to you.Write about something you see around you.That is, you need to choose something to write your cinquain about. Getting Startedįirst, you need to select a topic. If you want to, you can even memorize the syllable count by remembering this five-digit number: 24682. Cinquains do not need to rhyme, but you can include rhymes if you want to.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.
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. Write your words and phrases in an order that tells your story, being sure to count the syllables as you go.Think about what story you want to tell.Brainstorm words and phrases that have to do with your idea.
Decide what you would like to write about.You can learn to write cinquains by following these few simple steps:
Instead of just having descriptive words, they may also have an action (something happening), a feeling caused by the action, and a conclusion or ending. Though they are just five lines long, the best cinquains tell a small story. The first and last lines have just two syllables, while the middle lines have more, so they end up with a diamond-like shape, similar to the poetic form called the diamante. It was created by American poet Adelaide Crapsey about 100 years ago, and is similar to Japanese poetic forms, such as haiku and tanka.Ĭinquains are just five lines long, with only a few words on each line, making them easy to write. Adelaide Crapsey, American poet and creator of the modern cinquainĪ cinquain – which, by the way, is pronounced “sin-cane,” not “sin-kwane” – is a form of poetry that is very popular because of its simplicity.