Monday, February 15, 2016

Monday Poetry Stretch - Quintilla

The quintilla is a Spanish form consisting of a five-line stanza. Normally the lines contain 8 syllables and have only two rhyming sounds. There are many rhyming patterns used, the only one that is avoided is one that has a final rhyming couplet. Here are several rhyme scheme options.
a b a b a
a b b a b
a b a a b
a a b a b
a a b b a
You can read more about the form at this Writing.com entry.

So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing a quintilla (or two). Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.

4 comments:

  1. Sometimes

    Sometimes writing a whirlwind comes
    that bears in twists and turns the words
    to make your paper turn to golden suns
    and fill the skies of eyes with soaring birds
    so that you lift your hands like kites and run.

    —Kate Coombs, 2016
    all rights reserved

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can see these birds/words in the skies of my eyes! Lovely!

      Delete
  2. Here's a quintilla from the heart of February. With temperatures here in the 70s today, I feel almost guilty posting it, but my distrust of February is well founded and is blind to unseasonable El Nino warmth.

    FEBRUARY

    Oh second month, you of least days
    in quantity as well as sun's rays,
    cold and dark foremother to spring:
    green waits to show, birds wait to sing—
    your timepiece dawdles, your grey stays.

    Stephanie Parsley Ledyard

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is fine when declining in time
    devine men of the pen chiming in
    who opine when the crime has been
    a fine Rhine in a stein made of tin,
    and by nine ten of them are supine.

    ReplyDelete