I found it! The poem of the future is here now. I'm not sure how I could have missed it, but I spent an entire 20 grades in school and never heard of this poetic structure. Thankfully, my daughter, who is receiving a "classical" education, has already surpassed my poetic fund of knowledge. (or is it fund of poetic knowledge?) Anyway, this week she brought home from school some information about cinquains. That's right, cinquains. I'll bet you've never heard of one, have you? Well, I hadn't either. That's what makes me pretty sure they must be a new invention, because I scoured the poetic world in search of the perfect poem, and these never crossed my path. Perhaps they evolved out of the recent political debates. There's always lots of good stuff in those debates that just sort of flies right by the unengaged listener.
Anyway, this poem is pretty cool. I'm sure you'll all want to try one. It goes like this:
Line 1: Two syllables (the subject of the verse)
Line 2: Four syllables describing the subject (adjectives)
Line 3: Six syllables showing action
Line 4: Eight syllables expressing feeling or observation about the subject
Line 5: Two syllables describing or renaming the subject
OK, now that we know how to write one I'm going to go ahead an try one out. I think I will write about my favorite person:
Anda
Butterfly queen
Fluttering gracefully
Vision of beauty and glory
Stunning
Well, I don't expect you to do as well as I have on your first try (since I've been doing haikus for so long and you haven't), but once you get the hang of it, I'm sure you'll be a star in no time.
3 comments:
I actually have heard of a cinquain, but then again, I've always been a dork, so my knowledge of this poetic form doesn't necessarily speak well of me.
Anda as a butterfly queen made me laugh. I always thought of her as simply a queen, a notch above the more common princess. Or is that a monarch among the moths? (Alliteration trumps metaphor!)
Love you guys,
Jana
That's "princesses", not princess.
Argh.
Jana
Jana,
You are a giant among giants. Of course you have heard of a cinquain. I wouldn't be surprised if you invented cinquains. You commenting on my blog is like having Einstein grade my math homework. I'm honored.
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