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CROSSING A BRIDGE
John
Daleiden, US
The
cinquain is a unique American five-line verse form containing
twenty-two syllables (2, 4, 6, 8, 2). The two syllables in
lines one and five are often used to offer a secondary or
inner poem. Generally the meter is iambic,
but many writers compose un-metered cinquain. Adelaide
Crapsey, inventor of the cinquain, based the form on two
Japanese verse forms, haiku and tanka.
One important element of Crapsey's cinquain
is the use of a "turn", usually in the fourth line
of the poem. A "turn" is similar to the sestet (last
six lines) of an Italian sonnet—a western influence,
or similar to the concept of kireji
(cutting word) in haiku, an eastern influence.
Similarly, the tanka (a five-line Japanese
form),
and traditional
Waka use a turn or pivot in the third line. Adelaide
Crapsey used the turn in many of her twenty-eight published
cinquain.
About
Adelaide Crapsey
Adelaide
was born on
9
September, 1878. She died of
tuberculosis at age
36
on
8
October
1914.
In 1915 a posthumous collection of her writing
was published under the title Verse; the collection was
expanded and reprinted
in 1922 and 1934. This out of print book is available on line
as a part of "The American Verse Project" at the
University of Michigan. The online text of Crapsey's 28
published cinquain is available
here.
In a Preface to the publication of Crapsey's Verse,
Jean Webster's comments are significant:
"She originated the verse form which she calls
'Cinquain'. It is an example of extremist compression. She
reduces an idea to its very lowest
terms—and presents it in a
single sharp impression. In spite of the fact that many of
these poems were left only in their first rough draft, they
are marvelously perfect."
Cinquain poems became better known through the work of Carl
Sandburg (Cornhuskers, 1918)
and Louis Utermeyer (Modern American Poetry, 1919).
Crapsey's concise vision influenced
the
Imagist movement of the 1920's. Her most well known poem
is probably "Triad".
These be
Three silent things:
The falling snow... the hour
Before the dawn... the mouth of one
Just dead.
Cinquain poems are solidly rooted in both western and eastern
poetic traditions. In the past ten years cinquain poems
have appeared in some print journals and many on-line
publications.
In this issue, the World Haiku Club Poetrybridge presents many
diverse forms based on the original five-line cinquain
Adelaide Crapsey invented. Some of these forms explore the
collaborative aspects of Cinquain as well as solo poetry.
AMAZE:
The Cinquain Journal is an electronic magazine dedicated to
the publication of only cinquain materials; it can be viewed.
Currently, cinquain writers are exploring
the form in experimental ways. They have used the cinquain
verse form to write sequences, mirror-cinquain, crown-cinquain, garland-cinquain, reverse-cinquain, butterfly-cinquain, and collaborative sequences of cinquain. See
A
CINQUAIN GLOSSARY.
One recent experiment by Denis Garrison is the development of
the Cinqku form which debuts in the WhCpoetrybridge section of
this issue.
Two worlds—
crossing a bridge,
cinquain poets linking
western and eastern
traditions—
enjoy!
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