Adelaide Crapsey is best known as the inventor of the American cinquain. She was born in 1878 in Brooklyn, NY, and she grew up in Rochester. In 1903, she began to show symptoms of tuberculosis which would eventually take her life in 1914. In spite of her illness, Crapsey attended the American Academy’s School of Classical Study in Rome, and then eventually returned to the U.S. to teach at Smith College. Shortly after her death, her first book of poems was published. It was called simply Verse.

Links:

Read "Amaze" and "Niagra" by Adelaide Crapsey

Bio and poems at the Poetry Foundation's website

Adelaide Crapsey at Poets.org

Cinquain.org