PANTOUM

       This form from Malaysia consists of any number of stanzas in which the 2nd and 4th lines of a stanza reappear as the 1st and 3rd lines of the following stanza. The stanzas are quatrains with rhyme scheme abab. Lines 1 and 3 in the first stanza should be chosen carefully because they must recur in the final stanza, in reverse order, as lines 2 and 4.  This means that no new lines appear in the final quatrain, and the poem repeats its opening line on closing.    

       The classical pantoum demonstrates both rhyme and meter.  As with the villanelle, the specific meter used is a matter of choice, iambic pentameter not being the specific requirement.  Many pantoums are written today in free verse, without rhyme, but the pattern of established repetition pattern must be maintained.   

       The example below is a classical pantoum with meter and rhyme, demonstrating the required pattern of repetition.  (Please note that the opening quotation is not a requirement of the form.) 

THE SOUTHERN POETS AT MISS HIGBEE'S FINISHING SCHOOL, 1895

"Sleep sweetly in your humbled graves.
Sleep, martyrs of a fallen cause."  Henry Timrod


The Civil War was fresh in memory.
Miss Higbee taught devotion to the dead
to all the girls in her academy, 
requiring that the Southern poets be read.

Miss Higbee taught devotion to the dead.
She passed out thin, red volumes to her class, 
requiring that the Southern poets be read. 
Who could foresee how innocence would pass? 

The passed out thin, red volumes to her class.
With florid elocution she recited.
Who could foresee how innocence would pass?
Now all the proper passions were incited.

With florid elocution she recited
the works of Pike, Lamar, Lanier, and Poe. 
Now all the proper passions were incited.
What more should Southern ladies need to know?

The works of Pike, Lamar, Lanier, and Poe,
the grandeur of the Timrod elegy:
what more should Southern ladies need to know?
Theirs was, of course, a whitewashed history.

The grandeur of the Timrod elegy!
Such eloquence in praise of martyred lives!
Theirs was, of course, a whitewashed history,
scrubbed clean for well-bred ladies, future wives.

Such eloquence in praise of martyred lives!
Miss Higbee never spoke of rage or race.
Scrubbed clean for well-bred ladies, future wives, 
she felt that she would overstep her place.

Miss Higbee never spoke of rage or race
to all the girls in her academy.
She felt that she would overstep her place.
The Civil War was fresh in memory.

Thanks for this published sample to 
Russell H. Strauss, Poetry Society of TN,
Recent past president of NFSPS. 

NOTE:  The Blogger personally feels that the poet/writer must accomplish at least 16 lines or 4 stanzas to prove any real understanding of this form. Fewer than 16 lines simply does not adequately demonstrate how the pantoum works.  

florencebruce@att.net