Hello everyone and a special greeting to our USA friends – Happy Thanksgiving!
For today’s poetry form, we will focus on Quintain, sometimes called a Quintet. This is a poem or stanza with five lines. It can follow any meter or line length. The Limerick and Cinquain are well-known examples of a Quintain.
Specifically, we will get acquainted with English quintain and 16th century Spanish quintain, also known as quintilla. These poems follow a rhyme scheme, but the pattern depends on the style. Let’s take a closer look at each quintain.
English Quintain
*The rhyme scheme for English quintains is usually A-B-A-B-B.
*There is no set measure or foot (the number and type of syllables or feet).
*Quintains work well in long poems like ballads.
Here’s an excerpt from “Ode to a Skylark,” by Percy Bysshe Shelley:
In the golden lightning
Of the sunken sun,
O’er which clouds are bright’ning,
Thou dost float and run,
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.
Spanish Quintain (Quintilla)
*These lines are usually eight syllables, or iambic tetrameter.
*The rhyming scheme varies, but there are never more than two consecutive lines that rhyme.
*There is a choice of rhyme schemes such as : A-A-B-B-A and A-B-B-A-A and A-B-A-A-B and
A-B-A-B-A
*When written as a decastich (2 quintillas), the verse is known as Copla Real.
Here’s an example of 1 Quintilla from Pat Bibbs:
A flickering flame, on the wall
The sound of a, coyotes call
The desert winds, singing at night
Sandstorms dancing, in the moonlight
Embracing lovers, to befall
Sources: The Poets Garret Spanish Quintain English Quintain
Our challenge for today is to write a stanza or more of either English or Spanish Quintain. If you thinking of what theme to write about, you may consider the topic, Desire and Sexuality, from Tuesday’s Poetics. But really any topic is welcome as long as you write to the form.
- Write a poem in either English or Spanish Quintain. Link back to dVerse from your post so others know where to go if they want to participate.
- Once you have your post published, copy the link to your post and paste it in the Mister Linky below. The Mister Linky may ask you to accept its privacy terms and conditions to link up if you haven’t done so already.
- Check out the other posts linked with yours. Reading and commenting is a way for us to get to know each other.
- Come back tomorrow and see what new links have appeared. The Mister Linky will be open for two days.
See you at the poetry trail – Grace.
Grace said:
Hello!!!! Happy Thanksgiving to our USA friends. I expect it will quiet tonight but look forward to your quintain poems if you want to play.
Frank Hubeny said:
Thanks for hosting, Grace. I will soon be on my way to meet relatives for Thanksgiving, but I will be back tomorrow morning.
I like this short form. It reminds me of the tanka.
Grace said:
Yes, tanka or cinquain. Looks doable. Enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner and see you tomorrow Frank.
Glenn Buttkus said:
Thanks for hosting, Grace. I had trouble with Mr. Linky–please delete my first effort to link. We are hosting Thanksgiving today, so I’ll be back later too; hugs.
Grace said:
Hi Glenn. I will fix it for you. Enjoy your dinner and see you in the poetry trail.
Jane Dougherty said:
I enjoyed this one, Grace. Thanks for pointing it out to us.
Grace said:
So glad you find the form enjoyable to write Jane.
Jane Dougherty said:
I do. I’ll use it again, I’m sure.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Hello, joining late… went to a concert and listened to music by the composer Thea Musgrave… some amazing thing…
Grace said:
Always worth it to go to concernts Bjorn. Relatively quiet on the poetry trail tonightl
Gina said:
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate, a joyous time to be with family and friends. Love this form Grace, something so perfect for me right now.
Grace said:
Hello Gina! I am glad you like the form, as the rhyming pattern is easy to follow.
m.j.smith said:
Couldn’t help it: wrote a limerick.
Grace said:
Well a limerick is a quintain. For this exercise though, how about trying an English or Spanish quintain poem? The rhyming pattern is simple but let me know if you have some questions.
msjadeli said:
Good evening Grace and all. Will try to pull it together and try one.
Grace said:
Looking forward to it.
Just Barry said:
Wait… are you suggesting I try this poem AND consider the desire and sexuality topic from a few days ago? hmmm… twist my arm, why don’t you? (I’m kidding. I don’t like pain.)
Anyways, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! 😛
Grace said:
whoohooo! I will be right over to read 🙂
sarahsouthwest said:
Happy day-after-Thanksgiving – hope you all survived! Nice form, Grace.
Grace said:
Thanks Sarah! By the way, the Thanksgiving was for the US. Us, Canadians celebrated our Thanksgiving last October.
Rob Kistner said:
I enjoyed this Grace. I was with family all say and night. My daughter was up from San Francisco, so when she comes to Seattle the whole family party’s. I wrote “Token” while waiting for dessert. I wrote “That’s Stretching It” because I just couldn’t help myself… sorry… ;-). Well the sun will be up not too long from now, so I’m off to bed…
Grace said:
Looks like a good and happy family reunion for Thanksgiving. Have a good night.
Jo-Anne Teal (@jtvancouver) said:
I really want to try this! Hope I can get something written before the link closes. If not, I may link it on one of the open nights. A lovely prompt, Grace.
Grace said:
Hello Jo-Anne! Yes, take your time to write it and maybe link it up to OLN next week, Thursday.
merrildsmith said:
Thank you for hosting, Grace. This is a fun form. I was busy with Thanksgiving at our house, but I got a chance to write one today.
Grace said:
Hello Merrill! Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. I will be checking out all the poems out there.
merrildsmith said:
I did. Thank you, Grace!
lifelessons said:
Oops. I didn’t notice that dVerse had typed the name of the last poem I submitted in the blank and I hit “send” too fast. Thus, I have two poems in the queue. The second one is the one meant for this week’s prompt. Now I’ll go read those of you who did it right the first time!
Grace said:
I fixed it for you Judy. Thanks for joining us.
lifelessons said:
Thanks, Grace. I am always so afraid it is going to close down before I get my piece written that this time I even posted without photos, then went back to post photos later and that’s where I noticed I was posted twice. I had remembered the other coming up but it seemed to disappear when I posted the second one so I thought you’d detected a repeat. Ah well.
jillys2016 said:
I can’t resist a form, even if I’m a bit late to the game. Thanks for hosting, Grace!
Grace said:
And you did it so wonderfully too Jilly. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
kim881 said:
I’m late, I’m late for a very important date: happy Thanksgiving Grace and all our wonderful dVerse poets in North America!. I had my own very important date this week with my daughter and grandson. I’ll try to read and comment on as many poems as possible before I collapse after a very long journey caused by a train strike and signal failure.
Charmed Chaos said:
Darn, Darn, Darn- missed it. Just posted- 15 minutes too late! but here is the link if anyone is so inclined to read: https://charmedchaos.com/2018/11/24/grey/
Grace said:
Hello Linda! I have included your poem in Mr. Linky. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!
Charmed Chaos said:
Grace- how sweet of you. Thank you! And yes, Thanksgiving was wonderful. I hope yours was lovely too.
Charmed Chaos said:
I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! And Grace- what a fabulous prompt!
Grace said:
Thank you Linda. Your poem is included now in Mr. Linky.
Charmed Chaos said:
How kind of you!
iidorun said:
I, too, am a late entry! But I love learning about new poetry forms and wanted to add my tries at this. Please give feedback if you’re inclined to read my post: https://iidorun.wordpress.com/2018/11/25/to-the-moon-and-back-a-quintilla-and-quintain/
Grace said:
Hello Irma. Thanks for joining us. Your poem is now part of Mr. Linky. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
iidorun said:
Thank you for letting me join in the fun! 💐