Quintilla is a 16th century Spanish quintain with a rhyme scheme that is more about what cannot be done than what can be done.
The Quintilla is:
• syllabic verse, octasyllabic (8 syllable lines)
• stanzaic, written in any number of quintains (5 line stanzas).
• rhymed. In each quintain only 2 rhymes can be used and it cannot end in a rhyming couplet.
• There is choice of rhyme schemes of ababa, abbab, abaab, aabab, or aabba
• when written as a decastich, (2 quintillas) the verse is known as Copla Real
(Spanish-Quintilla-style poem)
Lights on, curtains up, stage alive,
Shakespeare, Molière, Jane Austen,
Your characters all now arrive,
They steal the limelight with action,
They bring the past back to revive.
Shakespeare, Molière, Jane Austen,
Parts of myself are in your plays,
Is it ok? Will you reckon?
Your characters, I can portray,
Even though my face is Asian.
Image credit
by Christopher Marrast.
A refugee's journey - Vietnam to Australia 
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