Daughter of Episcopal priest. 

Her interest in rhythm and meter led her to create a unique variation on the cinquain (or quintain), a 5-line form of 22 syllables influenced by the Japanese haiku and tanka. Her five-line cinquain (now styled as an American cinquain) has a generally iambic meter defined as “one-stress, two-stress, three-stress, four-stress and suddenly back to one-stress” and normally consists of 2 syllables in the first and last lines and 4, 6 and 8 syllables in the middle three lines, as shown in the poem Niagara. Marianne Moore said of her poetic style, “Crapsey's apartness and delicately differentiated footfalls, her pallor and color were impressive.”

Crapsey was born on September 9th 1878, in Brooklyn, New York. She grew up in Rochester, New York, the daughter of an Episcopal clergyman. After attending Kemper Hall in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Crapsey entered into Vassar College, from where she graduated from in 1901.	During her last years she wrote verse that would make her well-known and quite famous. She had a deep interest in rhythm and meter which led her to devise a verse called the cinquain which is a 5-line form of 22 syllables in its first and last lines and four, six, and eight in the intervening three lines. It usually has an iambic cadence to it.  She died in 1914, at age 36.

	Crapsey was born on September 9th 1878, in Brooklyn, New York. She grew up in Rochester, New York. She was the daughter of Reverend Algernon Crapsey who was an Episcopal clergyman. After attending Kemper Hall in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Crapsey entered into Vassar College, from where she graduated from in 1901.

	During her last years she wrote verse that would make her well-known and quite famous. She had a deep interest in rhythm and meter which led her to devise a verse called the cinquain which is a 5-line form of 22 syllables in its first and last lines and four, six, and eight in the intervening three lines. It usually has an iambic cadence to it.

	Crapsey taught at Smith College. Though she was diagnosed with Tuberculosis in 1911, she kept her illness a secret, and kept teaching until she collasped in 1913. She then moved to a private cure cottage in Saranac Lake, New York, where she stayed for a year. In August, 1914, Crapsey returned to Rochester, where she died on October 8, 1914, at the age of 36. She is buried there at Mount Hope Cemetery.

	Much of Adelaide`s work was published posthumously and it was Carl Sandburg`s poem, "Adelaide Crapsey," that re-established her and her art form in popular culture.