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
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[1]

  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[2]

See also

References
  1. James Kirkup, Hisatoshi Takata. What is English Poetry? Eichosha, 1970
  2. Autumn Song by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Further reading
  • Hobsbaum, Philip (1996). Metre, rhythm and verse form. The new critical idiom. Routledge. pp. 186–188. ISBN 0-415-08797-X.

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