Oulipos Quintain Museum

By Mike Garofalo

I first read the word 'Oulipos" on April 6, 2026.
So, then I searched the word on the Internet. Then I
searched in my poetry reference books. Then, I
purchased a book on the subject and read it on
April 10, 2026.

Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature. = OPPL
By Warren F. Motte, Jr. Dalkey Archive Press,
1986, index, glossary, notes, bibliography. VSCPL.

Oulipo Pornobongo: Anthology of Erotic Wordplay.
Edited by Norman Conquest, 2016.

The Penguin Book of Oulipo: Queneau, Perec, Calvino,
and the Adventure of Form. Edited by Philip Terry, 2020.

Oulipos - Wikipedia

Constrained Writing

The Oulipo's Legacy: Using Literary Constraints to Innovative Writing

Quintain Poetry Research

Bundled Up: Quintains: Volumes 1 - 7

Oulipo: "workshop of potential literature", is a loose
gathering of mainly French-speaking writers and
mathematicians who seek to create works using
constrained writing techniques. Constraints are
used as a means of triggering ideas and inspiration."
Wikipedia

I realized that by limiting myself to writing quintains since
2021, I had made an Oulipos decision to use the "Constraint"
of writing only quintains. I wrote with many quintain rhyme
schemes, and these were formal Oulipos constraints on
composition. I did not follow the Oulipos constraint of
writing only sounds/symbols/sights, and downplaying
meaningfulness. After reading various Oulipos poets, I came
to the conclusion that some of my poems could answer a
number of Oulipos questions and challenges.

This webpage will function to show how using a Oulipos
prompt/question/challenge might guide you in writing
a responding/answering quintain to that question.

Q = Constraint = Question = Oulipos Challenge

Q.1

Write a quintain poem that has all the words begin
with the same letter.

four fellows finding
five former friends
for further future
fun festivities---
fell for funky frivolities

BU3386

Q.2

Write a quintain sonnet 'poem' (5252) that has only numbers.

BU3469

Q.3

Write a quintain sonnet poem (5252) that uses only
one syllable words and alters the arrangement of
the letters in the words within; the couplets can
be anything.

TALL     WIND
TREE     WAYS
WIND    FALL
SWAY     ALLT
FALL      TREE

The tall dead tree fell in the storm wind.
The wind storm felled trees tall and dead.

TALL      SWAY
REET     ALLFF
WDWI    LLTA
YSWA     TREE
FALL      INDW

WIND ORMST LLFE LTAL REET
Nonsense, Yes! Meaning, slim.

BU1545

Harry Matthew's Algorithms: OPPL, p.129

Q.4

Create a poem that is a list.

Astoria Q = AAAAA
Cayucos Q = AAABB
Forks Q = AABAA
Eureka Q = AABBB
Queets Q = ABBBA

BU1554

Rhyme Schemes for Quintains

"Caress the detail, the divine detail."
    - Vladimir Nabokov

"The idea of one overbearing truth is exhausted."
- Thomas Mann

“A profound attention to the details of this world.”
- George Levine

“We think in generalities, but we live in details.”
- W. H. Auden

“Cherish the minutes heureuses.”
- Charles Baudelaire

“The vast and unsuspected reality of small things"
- Robert Nozick

“We are better satisfied in particulars.”
- Wallace Stevens

"God is in the details."
- Mies Van Der Rohe

“Details are all there are.”
- Maezumi Roshi

“Focus on small worlds of order.”
- Paul Valery

"In general, be more specific."
- Mike Garofalo

“No ideas but in things."
- William Carlos Williams

"The natural object is always
the adequate symbol."
- Ezra Pound

"Details are the Life of Prose."
- Jack Kerouac

"Only emotion objectified endures."
- Louis Zukofsky

"holy shit!"
- woo who

"marvelous miniscule particulars"
- Mike Garofalo

 The Bottom Line

Q.5

Could you write 500 quintains
without using the word 'love'?

Yes! See Bundled Up: Quintains: Volume 3

Liponymy: Forbids the use of a specific
given word. OPPL, p. 107

Q.6

Write two quintains with only three syllables
     in each line.

Q.7

Write a quintain and have every word begin
     with the same letter.

Q.8

Write two quintains with the Crapsey quintain
     syllable line count of 24682.

Q.9

The Penguin Book of Oulipo: Queneau, Perec, Calvino,
and the Adventure of Form. Edited by Philip Terry, 2020.

I often use Oulipo techniques with my quintains,
by using various "constraints", for example:

Write three quintains each with the Coos Quintain
     rhyme scheme of ABCBB.
Write one sonnet in the 5252 scheme.
Write a free verse quintain sonnet in the 555
     format with no repetition of any word.
Write a quintain with two syllables per line
     and no verbs.
Write three quintains with six syllables per
     line using the Cayucos rhyme scheme AAABB.

Write a quintain sonnet 554 with as many
     punctuation marks, numbers, and non-word
     signs and symbols as possible.

I have written many quintains with
     these kinds of constraints.

This document was last edited, revised,
reformatted, added to, relinked,
changed, improved, or modified
by Mike Garofalo
on April 10, 2026.