Quintain (poetry)


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

Example


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