The Very Best Word
My first effort to write like a 19th-century poet named Adelaide
A cinquain, in poetry, is five unrhymed lines in a 2–4–6–8–2 pattern. There are several variations. The one I found first, and which guides my writing in this form, is this one:
- Line 1 is a noun with two syllables.
- Line 2 is two adjectives with a combined four syllables describing the noun.
- Line 3 is three -ing words with a combined six syllables describing the noun.
- Line 4 is an eight-syllable phrase or sentence about the noun.
- Line 5 is a word (or two) in two syllables that renames the noun.
Cinquain is pronounced “sing·kayn.” In French, it refers to a “bundle of five objects.” As a poetic form, it is an offshoot of haiku and tanka invented by nineteenth-century American poet Adelaide Crapsey.
What a name for a respectable young lady! I imagine Mistress Crapsey tried her darndest to ignore all the toilet humor. I imagine her in her frilly gown, sitting with her very best posture at an old oak writing desk, determined to pen something beautiful and profound.
Here I am, more than a hundred years later, just as determined to write something beautiful and profound in the 22 syllables allowed in a cinquain:
𝓨𝓮𝓼! 𝓨𝓮𝓼!
𝓟𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓮𝓬𝓽, 𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓯𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭
𝓦𝓲𝓵𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓰, 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓲𝓷𝓰, 𝓰𝓲𝓿𝓲𝓷𝓰
𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂 𝓫𝓮𝓼𝓽 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓭 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓵𝓭
𝓙𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓼𝓸
