1. Day 3 Cinquain and Senryu Poems
Poetry
Day 3
Cinquain and Senryu Poems

2. Poet Focus
Nimah Nawwab

3. Cinquain (SING-cane)
Cinquain come from the French for “a grouping of five”
Cinquains have 5 lines with specific syllable counts for each
Line 1: 2
Line 2: 4
Line 3: 6
Line 4: 8
Line 5: 2
Cinquains capture brief images of moments or statements
The lines should work together and not cut the thought at the end of each. They do not rhyme!
The poem should build suspense until the final line.
The final line can be a surprise

4. Adelaide Crapsey’s Example
Triad These be Three silent things: The falling snow… the hour Before the dawn… the mouth of one Just dead.
She invented the form, so it’s good.

5. Poet Focus
Walt Whitman

6. Senryu (SEND-you) Shares the same form and origin as the Haiku.
3 lines
Line 1 – 5 sounds (syllables)
Line 2 – 7 sounds (syllables)
Line 3 – 5 sounds (syllables)
Difference:
Haiku capture a moment linking nature to man
Senryu aim to capture pure human nature
Senryu are sometimes sarcastic and usually humorous

7. Senryu examples crazy for me, she was, I find out fifty years later
~ Kenkabo
looking for the shoes
of the visitor—the little boy
has them on
~ Koka
squinting
to read the sign
“optician”
~ Alan Pizzarelli
Her name forgotten…
the sweetheart my father said
I would forget
~ Ross Kremer

8. For the rest of class: Practice cinquain and senryu
Each form needs to be included in your project
Look at our four poets to this point and see if one is a poet you’d like to focus on for your analyses