Quintain (poetry)

A quintain is any poetic form containing five lines such as tanka, cinquain, and limerick.

Example

Original manuscript of "Autumn Song" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1848, in the Ashley Library.

       All, all a-lonely:

  Three little children sitting on the sand,
  All, all a-lonely,
  Three little children sitting in the sand,
  All, all a-lonely
  Down in the green wood shady―

　 There came an old woman, said Come on with me,
  All, all a-lonely,
  There came an old women, said Come on with me,
  All, all a-lonely,
  Down in the green wood shady―

　 She stuck her pen-knife through their heart,
　 All, all a-lonely,
  She stuck her pen-knife through their heart,
  All, all a-lonely,
  Down in the green wood shady―

　　　　　　　　　　　　--anonymous English Poem

       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

See also

• Mukhammas
• Stanza
• Quintil (French)

External links

• Five Line Poetry Forms