Quintain Poem Rhyme Schemes. Research by Michael P. Garofalo.

Rhyme Schemes for Quintains

By Michael P. Garofalo

 

Q = Quintain Rhyme Scheme
Quintains, Pentastichs, Tankas, Quintillas
End of Line rhyme
Sorted by Rhyme Pattern

AAAAA Bellingham Q #1517, 1580, 1586, 1632, 1643, 1697, 1814, 1908
AAABB Cayucos Q # 423, 1744, 1759, 1807, 1810, 1892
AAABC Ferndale Q #824, 1742
AABAA Forks Q #477, 1801, 1858, 1866
AABAB Illwaco Q # 1648, 1740
AABBA Limerick Q #577, 927, 1113, 1642, 1652
AABBB Eureka Q #7, 1554, 1584, 1883, 1960
AABBC Astoria Q # 1616, 1680, 1803
AABCC Mendocino Q # 1869, 1980
AACBB Envelope Pepperwood Q #1213, 1617, 1806
ABABA Sicilian Q #702. 1107, 1611
ABABB English Q #726, 1197, 1498
ABACC Inverness Q # 1788, 2131
ABBAA Spanish Q #1464, 1465, 1485, 1575, 1666, 1800, 2211
ABBBA Queets Q #1609, 1743, 1776
ABBBB Newport Q # 1667, 1674, 1669
ABBCB Ventura Q #1000, 1618
ABBCC Yachats Q # 1781, 1804, 1505
ABCBA Envelope Q #288, 1806
ABCBB Coos Q #669, 1213, 1577, 1767, 1784, 1984
ABCCA Brookings Q #1113, 1967, 1974
ABCCC Fortuna Q #1460, 1777, 1865, 1955
ABCDA Crapsey Q #170, 214, 280, 1191, 1489, 1499
ABCDC Monchielle Q #1594
ABCDE Concrete Q #1203, 1441, 1473
ABCDE Didactic Q #1551, 1852
ABCDE Free Verse Q #4, 1730, 1861, 1867, 1877, 2081
ABCDE Gogyohkas Tanka Q # 1661, 1504, 1760, 1762
ABCDE Imagist Q # 1716, 1723, 1751
ABCDE Minimalist Tanka Q #141, 222, 1769
ABCDE Pentastich Q #194, 585, 597, 1730, 2011
ABCDE Prose Poem Q #1455, 1561, 1672, 1867, 1877
ABCDE Tankas Traditional Q #603, 604, 2021, 2031
ABCDE Wakas Q #603, 902, 1022, 2041
!@ #@! Shape/Concrete Q #1441, 1203
X$&eG Typographical Q #187, 189, 470, 1012, 1203, 1553, 1940
xxxxx Free Verse Q # 4, 1730, 1861, 1867, 1877, 2081
xxxxx Iambic Pent Q # 1960, 1980,
xxxxx If-SwitchQ # 1505, 1939, 1955, 1967
xxxxx Ms. Ai Q # 21, 1328, 1520, 1723, 1912, 2019, 2518, 2915, 2974

Quintains - Research

Poetry - Research

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

Bundled Up: Volume 1
1,000 Quintain Poems

 

Q = Quintain Rhyme Scheme
Quintains, Pentastichs, Tankas
End of Line Rhyme
Sorted by Scheme Title

Astoria Q = AABBC
Bellingham Q = AAAAA
Brookings Q = ABCCA
Cayucos Q = AAABB
Concrete Q = !@ 5 @!
Coos Q = ABCBB
Crapsey Q = ABCDA
Didactic Q = ABCDE
English Q = ABABB
Envelope Q = ABCBA
Envelope Pepperwood Q = AACBB
Eureka Q = AABBB
Ferndale Q = AAABC
Forks Q = AABAA
Fortuna Q = ABCCC
Free Verse Q = ABCDE
Free Verse Q = xxxxx
Gogyohkas Tanka Q = ABCDE
Iambic Pent Q = xxxxx
If-SwitchQ = xxxxx
Ilwaco Q = AABAB
Imagist Q = ABCDE
Inverness Q = ABACC
Limerick Q = AABBA
Mendocino Q = AABCC
Minimalist Tanka Q = ABCDE
Monchielle Q = ABCDC
Ms. Ai Q = xxxxx
Newport Q = ABBBB
Pentastich Q = ABCDE
Prose Poem Q = ABCDE
Queets Q = ABBBA
Shape/Concrete Q = !@ #@!
Sicilian Q = ABABA
Spanish Q = ABBAA
Tankas Traditional Q = ABCDE
Typographical Q = X$&eG
Ventura Q = ABBCB
Wakas Q = ABCDE
Yachats Q = ABBCC

 

Quintains - Research

Poetry - Research

Bundled Up: Volume 1
1,000 Quintain Poems

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

By Michael P. Garofalo

Updated January 16 2026

 

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

 Rhyme Schemes for Quintains

By Michael P. Garofalo

 

Q = Quintain Rhyme Scheme
Quintains, Pentastichs, Tankas, Quintillas
End of Line rhyme
Sorted by Rhyme Pattern

AAAAA Bellingham Q #1517, 1580, 1586, 1632, 1643, 1697, 1814, 1908
AAABB Cayucos Q # 423, 1744, 1759, 1807, 1810, 1892
AAABC Ferndale Q #824, 1742
AABAA Forks Q #477, 1801, 1858, 1866
AABAB Illwaco Q # 1648, 1740
AABBA Limerick Q #577, 927, 1113, 1642, 1652
AABBB Eureka Q #7, 1554, 1584, 1883, 1960
AABBC Astoria Q # 1616, 1680, 1803
AABCC Mendocino Q # 1869, 1980
AACBB Envelope Pepperwood Q #1213, 1617, 1806
ABABA Sicilian Q #702. 1107, 1611
ABABB English Q #726, 1197, 1498
ABACC Inverness Q # 1788, 2131
ABBAA Spanish Q #1464, 1465, 1485, 1575, 1666, 1800, 2211
ABBBA Queets Q #1609, 1743, 1776
ABBBB Newport Q # 1667, 1674, 1669
ABBCB Ventura Q #1000, 1618
ABBCC Yachats Q # 1781, 1804, 1505
ABCBA Envelope Q #288, 1806
ABCBB Coos Q #669, 1213, 1577, 1767, 1784, 1984
ABCCA Brookings Q #1113, 1967, 1974
ABCCC Fortuna Q #1460, 1777, 1865, 1955
ABCDA Crapsey Q #170, 214, 280, 1191, 1489, 1499
ABCDC Monchielle Q #1594
ABCDE Concrete Q #1203, 1441, 1473
ABCDE Didactic Q #1551, 1852
ABCDE Free Verse Q #4, 1730, 1861, 1867, 1877, 2081
ABCDE Gogyohkas Tanka Q # 1661, 1504, 1760, 1762
ABCDE Imagist Q # 1716, 1723, 1751
ABCDE Minimalist Tanka Q #141, 222, 1769
ABCDE Pentastich Q #194, 585, 597, 1730, 2011
ABCDE Prose Poem Q #1455, 1561, 1672, 1867, 1877
ABCDE Tankas Traditional Q #603, 604, 2021, 2031
ABCDE Wakas Q #603, 902, 1022, 2041
!@ #@! Shape/Concrete Q #1441, 1203
X$&eG Typographical Q #187, 189, 470, 1012, 1203, 1553, 1940
xxxxx Free Verse Q # 4, 1730, 1861, 1867, 1877, 2081
xxxxx Iambic Pent Q # 1960, 1980,
xxxxx If-Humor Q # 1505, 1939, 1955, 1967
xxxxx Ms. Ai Q # 21, 1328, 1520, 1723, 1912, 2019, 2518, 2915, 2974

Quintains - Research

Poetry - Research

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

Bundled Up: Volume 1
1,000 Quintain Poems

 

Q = Quintain Rhyme Scheme
Quintains, Pentastichs, Tankas
End of Line Rhyme
Sorted by Scheme Title

Astoria Q = AABBC
Bellingham Q = AAAAA
Brookings Q = ABCCA
Cayucos Q = AAABB
Concrete Q = !@ 5 @!
Coos Q = ABCBB
Crapsey Q = ABCDA
Didactic Q = ABCDE
English Q = ABABB
Envelope Q = ABCBA
Envelope Pepperwood Q = AACBB
Eureka Q = AABBB
Ferndale Q = AAABC
Forks Q = AABAA
Fortuna Q = ABCCC
Free Verse Q = ABCDE
Free Verse Q = xxxxx
Gogyohkas Tanka Q = ABCDE
Iambic Pent Q = xxxxx
If-Humor Q = xxxxx
Ilwaco Q = AABAB
Imagist Q = ABCDE
Inverness Q = ABACC
Limerick Q = AABBA
Mendocino Q = AABCC
Minimalist Tanka Q = ABCDE
Monchielle Q = ABCDC
Ms. Ai Q = xxxxx
Newport Q = ABBBB
Pentastich Q = ABCDE
Prose Poem Q = ABCDE
Queets Q = ABBBA
Shape/Concrete Q = !@ #@!
Sicilian Q = ABABA
Spanish Q = ABBAA
Tankas Traditional Q = ABCDE
Typographical Q = X$&eG
Ventura Q = ABBCB
Wakas Q = ABCDE
Yachats Q = ABBCC

 

Quintains - Research

Poetry - Research

Bundled Up: Volume 1
1,000 Quintain Poems

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

By Michael P. Garofalo

Updated January 16 2026

 

Quintains: Five Line Poems

"A quintain (also known as a quintet) is any poetic form or stanza that contains five lines. Quintain poems can contain any line length or meter."

Master Class on Quintains

8 Types of Quintains

"There are many variations of the quintain that have developed over the centuries, some of which are specific to different cultures. Here are the most common types of quintains:

1. 1. Cinquain: A cinquain is a poem or five-line stanza with a rigid syllable count for each line. This modern form was invented by American poet Adelaide Crapsey. The first line contains two syllables, the second line contains four, the third line contains six, the fourth line contains eight, and the last line contains two.
2. 2. English quintain: The English quintain follows a rhyme scheme of ABABB, in which the final two lines form a rhyming couplet. Though an English quintain requires an ABABB rhyming pattern, there is no established foot or measure.
3. 3. Limerick: The limerick follows a rhyming scheme of AABBA. The “A” lines are composed using iambic tetrameter, while the “B” lines are written in iambic trimeter. Limericks usually stand alone as a five-line poem and often contain bawdy or humorous subject matter. Nineteenth-century English poet Edward Lear, whose works include the famous limerick “There Was Once an Old Man with a Beard,” popularized this form.
4. 4. Spanish Quintain: The Spanish quintain (also known as the quintilla) is a type of five-line poetry that is eight syllables in length, each line written in iambic tetrameter. It usually follows a rhyme scheme of ABBAA or AABBA, but this five-line poetry form can follow any rhyme scheme (including ABAAB), as long as no more than two consecutive lines rhyme at a time.
5. 5. Pentastich: A pentastich is a free verse or blank verse form of quintain poetry. Each five-line stanza contains no rhyme or meter.
6. 6. Sicilian quintain: The Sicilian quintain employs an ABABA rhyme sequence. Though the original form of the Sicilian quintain had no specific form or meter, it is now common for it to be written iambic pentameter. In the Shakespearean sonnet “Sonnet 99,” the author’s first stanza is a Sicilian quintain, followed by two four-line stanzas (quatrains).
7. 7. Tanka: The tanka is a Japanese form of quintain poetry. Much like a haiku, the tanka has particular syllable requirements. In Japanese, the tanka is written as one unbroken line consisting of 31 syllables, but when it is converted into English poetry, it is usually broken up into five lines. In this case, the first and third lines contain five syllables, while the second, fourth, and fifth lines contain seven syllables.
8. 8. Envelope quintet: An envelope quintet is a five-line verse in which the inner lines are enclosed by the rhyming outer lines. The rhyme scheme may look like ABCBA, AABAA, or ABBBA (in which the middle lines form a rhyming tercet)."
9. 
   

Quintains and Tanka: Bundled Up
By Mike Garofalo

25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works
Poetry, Indexes, Anthologies, Research
By Michael P. Garofalo

Hillcrest by Edward Arlington Robinson

Hillcrest

By Edward Arlington Robinson

1916

(To Mrs. Edward MacDowell)


No sound of any storm that shakes  
Old island walls with older seas  
Comes here where now September makes  
An island in a sea of trees.  
 
Between the sunlight and the shade
A man may learn till he forgets  
The roaring of a world remade,  
And all his ruins and regrets;  
 
And if he still remembers here  
Poor fights he may have won or lost,—
If he be ridden with the fear  
Of what some other fight may cost,—  
 
If, eager to confuse too soon,  
What he has known with what may be,  
He reads a planet out of tune
For cause of his jarred harmony,—  
 
If here he venture to unroll  
His index of adagios,  
And he be given to console  
Humanity with what he knows,—
 
He may by contemplation learn  
A little more than what he knew,  
And even see great oaks return  
To acorns out of which they grew.  
 
He may, if he but listen well,
Through twilight and the silence here,  
Be told what there are none may tell  
To vanity’s impatient ear;  
 
And he may never dare again  
Say what awaits him, or be sure
What sunlit labyrinth of pain  
He may not enter and endure.  
 
Who knows to-day from yesterday  
May learn to count no thing too strange:  
Love builds of what Time takes away,
Till Death itself is less than Change.  
 
Who sees enough in his duress  
May go as far as dreams have gone;  
Who sees a little may do less  
Than many who are blind have done;
 
Who sees unchastened here the soul
Triumphant has no other sight
Than has a child who sees the whole
World radiant with his own delight.
 
Far journeys and hard wandering
Await him in whose crude surmise
Peace, like a mask, hides everything
That is and has been from his eyes;
 
And all his wisdom is unfound,
Or like a web that error weaves
On airy looms that have a sound
No louder now than falling leaves.

25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works
Poetry, Indexes, Anthologies, Research
By Michael P. Garofalo

Tanka Poetry - Quintains
By Mike Garofalo

Prime Your Mind with Guiding Rhymes

Prime Your Mind with Guiding Rhymes: 

Find some beauty, it’s your duty.
Try your best to avoid excess.
Handle tools with respectful rules. 
Get your ass moving or you’ll be losing.
Take the halo off your heroes. 
Consider others as your brothers.
Your purpose in life should guide you right.
Walk your talk.
Be at ease often, please.
A smile walks woes away for miles.
Stand tall and embrace all.
Just sit and you won’t be fit.    
Smoker’s breath―coughing death. 
Booze your body, bamboozle your mind.
Goodness has a portion of badness.
The seasons give us many reasons.
Insight is often hindsight.
Just one word can unravel what we heard.
We cannot resist believing fictions exist.
We relish and repeat, we link with what we like.
Rigidity is stupidity.
Jumping to conclusions―pleasing your illusions.
Resist translating the implicit into the explicit. 
Slow down before you hit the ground.
Hate locks Love’s Gate. 
Norms are not Eternal Forms.
Ambiguity decreases perspicuity. 
Unbelieving is a source of relieving or grieving. 
Right brain, left brain: tracks below our Living Trains.
You can’t hide from the Big Surprise. 
Rather than cut and dried, favor the whole alive. 
For growth, balance either/or with and/both.
Get work done and have some fun.
Find our common ground―look down.
Alienation begs for imaginative mediation. 
Make history in some new way each day. 
-  Michael P. Garofalo, Pulling Onions

Pulling Onions   Over 1,041 Quips and Sayings by Mike Garofalo