Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1914) devised the American cinquain, a five-line poetry form. The first line has two syllables, the second has four, the third has six, the fourth has eight and the fifth has two. These are five of her poems, written between 1911 and 1913.

November Night

Listen ...

With faint dry sound,

Like steps of passing ghosts,

The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees

And fall.

Amaze

I know

Not these my hands

And yet I think there was

A woman like  me once had hands

Like these.

The Warning

Just now,

Out of the strange,

Still dusk ... as strange, as still ...

A white moth flew. Why am I grown

So cold?

Triad

These be

Three silent things:

The falling snow ... the hour

Before the dawn ... the mouth of one

Just dead.

Snow

Look up ...

From bleakening hills

Blows down the light, first breath

Of wintry wind ... look up, and scent

The snow!