A BOOK OF CINQUAINS

The cinquain is a five-line twenty-two syllable verse form created by Adelaide Crapsey in response to the tanka and haiku forms which were then coming into vogue among English-language poets. Because it is a western form, the cinquain is more expansive and rhetorical. It lends itself to a variety of uses. A Book of Cinquains contains poems that are descriptive, humorous, meditative and dramatic.