How to craft Syllabic Poetry

Posted on by Colleen M. Chesebro

Are you new to crafting syllabic poetry and don’t know how to start? Let me show you two syllabic poetry forms to get you started on your poetry writing journey now…

Let’s start with an American form, the Crapsey Cinquain. The Crapsey Cinquain is a five-line, non-rhyming poem featuring a syllable structure of 2-4-6-8-2. Choose words that create drama that builds into the fourth line. The turn occurs on line five, the most important line. This is where you change your focus away from the drama in some interesting way. Cinquain poems need a title.

Use a syllable counter as you compose your poetry. I use sodacoffee.com/syllables/. See my example below:

"Day Dawns"

pink blush—
fairy sunshine
smudges morning's gray clouds
dew sparkles against the grasses
thunder

© Colleen M. Chesebro

In the Crapsey cinquain above, I described a morning sunrise. True to the form, I pivoted in line five. My last two-syllables are where I turned away from the beauty of the scene and added the word “thunder.” This gives a hint that not everything is as it seems in the idyllic scene I described.

LEARN more about the Crapsey cinquain form at cinquain.org.

If Japanese poetry intrigues you, start with the haiku. Haiku contains three lines following the short-long-short, 3-5-3, 2-3-2, (5-7-5 traditional) syllable count. Your haiku should contain approximately twelve syllables. We write haiku about nature, the seasons, a beautiful moment in nature, an emotional experience while in nature, or change. Haiku are untitled. The use of a Kigo (season word) is optional. Haiku do not rhyme. Do not use metaphors or similes in haiku.

(When you’re first learning how to write haiku, use the 5-7-5 syllable structure until you’re ready to embrace the shorter formats.)

When we write haiku, we’re sharing an encounter between nature and ourself as a human. We describe our experience at that exact moment. These are the moments that stand out and grab our attention in unexpected ways.

clouds stitched together
against the blue cloth of sky
summer's heat rises

© Colleen M. Chesebro

In the haiku above, I describe the clouds, and how they look against a blue sky. Notice my choice of words. I also used a kigo or season word, which is summer. Now, you’re experiencing the moment with me…

Break your haiku into two separate word images:

clouds stitched together against the blue cloth of sky

against the blue cloth of sky summer’s heat rises

This is a great way to check your haiku when you’ve finished writing. Combine the first and second line of your haiku. Does a mental image appear? In this example, you can see the clouds contrast the color of the blue sky. Remember the brevity of words.

However, when you take the second and third line and combine them, you receive another mental image. Now you see the heat shimmers against the blue sky.

The idea is to write about two contrasting or somehow similar images, and to connect them in unusual ways. Haiku are all about images. How does the haiku make you feel? Have you created emotion without telling your reader how to feel?

That’s it! You’re ready to craft syllabic poetry. Join us every Tuesday on wordcraftpoetry.com for Tanka Tuesday and get your poetry writing groove on!

I’ve done the work of researching these syllabic forms for you. Word Craft: Prose & Poetry is available as an Ebook and a Print book. mybook.to/WordCraftProsePoetry Let’s write syllabic poetry together! ❤

74 thoughts on “How to craft Syllabic Poetry”

  1. More information than I ever followed. But then I tend to stray and write about what I observe 😀
    I’ll copy these directions, but I can’t promise I’ll intently follow them.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. And I do hope they start and continue! It is good to continue to learn and even attempt to follow a good rule now and then 😉

        You really are a very good teacher and friend! I was looking in the night’s sky the last two evenings – and I saw Jupiter! Now there’s something to try and write about.

        I briefly touched upon it in my verse today.
        Maybe I’ll try a Cinquain again or even some ‘short’ haiku 😀

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes, but that’s difficult for a first time poet to grasp. I hope people will embrace the forms before I scare them away with all the iambic meter. We’ve not written with iambic meter for the challenges. ❤

      Liked by 1 person

    2. And my research for my book also led me to this: “Some scholars define the line length of American cinquains by counting iambs or stressed syllables, rather than by counting total syllables. By this sort of counting, the proper line length of an American cinquain would be 1-2-3-4-1, since it would contain one iamb in the first line, two in the second line, and so on. The right way to count the line length is ultimately a matter of interpretation, though, since Crapsey never specified the rules of the form she invented.” https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/cinquain. For the challenges, I left it at 2-4-6-8-2 for simplicity. ❤

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