Yum, Cinquain

Wayne Writers Guild prompt: Food

Yum. (Adelaide Crapsey Cinquain)

By Kate Chamberlin

April 14, 2015

Yum, Yum.

I like to eat.

Roast beef, turkey, and ham.

Vegetables with fresh yogurt.

Good food!

Eat up.

Ask for seconds.

Dessert is sure to com.

Do you have some Alka-seltzer?

Alas!

Adelaide Crapsey in 1911: a usually unrhymed poem, often in iambic pentameter, written in 5 lines of 2, 4, 6, 8, 2 syllables in each line. Crapsey’s cinquains were titled, and appealed to the structure of the haiku, ideally building up to a ‘turn’ in the 5th line or just before it.

A common variant of the form, sometimes called the ‘didactic cinquain’ as it is used to teach grammar, does not necessarily follow the syllable count rules, but has the following criteria for each line:

Line 1: the title, a single-word noun.

Line 2: two words, adjectives describing the title.

Line 3: three words, verbs that e.g. state what the title can do.

Line 4: four words, a phrase which describes a feeling or effect related to the title.

Line 5: a single word, a synonym of the title, or a word relating to it.

Food

Delicious, nutritious

Grow, nurture, flourish

Eating is comforting.

Yum!