Cinquain Poems

Line A: One vague or general one-word subject or topic
Line B: Two vivid adjectives that describe the topic
Line C: Three interesting -ing action verbs that fit the topic
Line D: Four-word phrase that captures feeling about the topic
Line E: A very specific term that explains Line A

Examples:

Planet

Graceful, ringed

Spinning, whirling, twirling

Dances with neighbour Jupiter

Saturn

Insect

Hidden, hungry

Preening, searching, stalking

Waits as if praying

Mantis

Word Pair Ideas: General topic / specific topic

• bird/parrot (or crow, canary, dove)
• fruit/apple (or pear, banana, watermelon, peach, etc.)
• season/spring (or summer, fall, autumn, winter)
• winter/January (or spring / April, summer / July, autumn / October)
• candy/jawbreaker (or Snickers, jelly beans, liquorice)
• storm/tornado (or hurricane, blizzard, squall)
• water/river (or ocean, lake, stream, creek)
• grandparent/Nana (or Grandma, Papa, Pops)

STEPS:

1. Pick out your most descriptive words from your brainstorming and put your cinquain together.
2. Your cinquain should have 5 lines and the finished poem should only have 11 words.
3. When you are satisfied, recopy the poem onto clean notebook paper.
4. Centre your cinquain on the paper.
5. Begin each line with a capital letter, and remember your commas. Do not use ending punctuation.
6. When finished, double-check for concreteness!