Quintain (poetry)

A quintain or pentastich is any poetic form containing five lines. Examples include the tanka, the cinquain, the quintilla, Shakespeare's Sonnet 99, and the limerick.

Examples

Sonnet 99 (first stanza)

The forward violet thus did I chide: Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells If not from my love’s breath? The purple pride Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells, In my love’s veins thou hast too grossly dyed. — William ShakespeareHammond, Gerald. The Reader and the Young Man Sonnets. Barnes & Noble, 1981. P. 144.

Autumn Song

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf How the heart feels a languid grief Laid on it for a covering, And how sleep seems a goodly thing In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

And how the swift beat of the brain Falters because it is in vain, In Autumn at the fall of the leaf Knowest thou not? and how the chief Of joys seems—not to suffer pain?

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf How the soul feels like a dried sheaf Bound up at length for harvesting, And how death seems a comely thing In Autumn at the fall of the leaf? — Dante Gabriel Rossetti "Autumn Song" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Corporal (extract)

Half of my youth I watched the soldiers And saw mechanic clerk and cook Subsumed beneath a uniform. Gray black and khaki was their look Whose tool and instrument was death.

I watched them wheel on white parade grounds. How could the flesh have such control? Ballets with symmetry of the flower Outlined the aspect of a soul Whose pure precision was of death. — Thom GunnThom Gunn from "Jack Straw's Castle", Faber & Faber, 1976 ISBN 057111010X

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation, O my soul, praise him, for he is thy health and salvation: All ye who hear Now to his temple draw near, Joining in glad adoration. — Catherine WinkworthHymns for Church and School. Gresham Books, 1985 edition. P. 239.

Quintain (poetry)

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