English Quintet

The English Quintet is a rhymed 5 line stanza or poem. There is no English word for a 5 lines of verse therefore they borrowed the Italian word quintet. Up until the 19th century English poetry was pretty much built on the couplet and quatrain. The English version of the quintet arrived at a time when most English poetry was still being written in iambic pentameter.

The English Quintet is:
• stanzaic, written in any number of quintets (5 line stanzas).
• metered, most commonly iambic pentameter, although meter is optional.
This is a popular form of Quintain having no set measure or foot
rhyme scheme ababb, cdcdd etc.

Description of form copied and pasted from PoetryMagnumOpus.com http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=670

Example Poem

Not a Muscle Car

I earned my dough to buy a car at last.
In '56 I'd break the geekdom mold.
"No", said mom "You'll buy nothing that goes fast.
You're sixteen and will do what you are told."
I could afford to buy some car quite old.

A Studebaker, mom thought looked all right.
With white walls it stood proudly green and clean.
It had one after market feature quite
unique, a sequined roof of stars was seen
upon the overhead; girls thought it keen.

It lasted 'til my high school days were done.
Four bits worth of gas could cruise all night long.
The crankshaft dropped so no more could it run.
That happened when I punched it- that was wrong,
and why mom let me buy it for a song.

© Lawrencealot -  December 16, 2012



Visual Template (for Iambic pentameter)