The Pantoum

The pantoum is a very interesting form of poetry. It uses a lot of repetition. Actually, pantoums are completely based on repetition. Pantoums consist of a number of quatrains (four-line stanzas) with the second and fourth lines of any given quatrain appearing as the first and third lines of the following stanza. So, for example, the second and fourth lines of

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet,

And so are you.

would be seen again as the first and third lines of the next stanza, which might look something like this:

Violets are blue,

Deeper than the sky,

And so are you

Whenever you cry.

Pantoums can have any number of quatrains as the author sees fit to write, but they generally have more than two. The last quatrain follows a different pattern than all the others, with the unrepeated first and third lines of the first stanza returning. The third line of the opening stanza becomes the second line of the final, and the first line of the opening becomes the last line of the final. So, to continue with the (rather horrible) example, if the third quatrain was this poem’s last, it would look like this:

Deeper than the sky,

Sugar is sweet

Whenever you cry.

Roses are red.

So altogether, the pantoum would look like this:

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet,

And so are you.

Violets are blue,

Deeper than the sky.

And so are you

Whenever you cry.

Deeper than the sky,

Sugar is sweet

Whenever you cry.

Roses are red.

Ignoring the fact that the last stanza makes absolutely no sense whatsoever (but manages to seem rather mean), that is the basic set-up for a pantoum. There is, however, a problem with this particular example (aside from the unoriginality of the first stanza and the subsequent nonsense): it does not follow the expected rhyme scheme. Pantoums generally follow an abab rhyme pattern, so either the line “roses are red” or “and so are you” would need to be changed in order to truly fit the structure of a pantoum. To modify the example a bit and make it a tad better (and much more morbid):

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Chivalry is dead,

And so are you.

Violets are blue,

Deeper than the sky.

And so are you

Whenever you cry.

Deeper than the sky,

Chivalry is dead

Whenever you cry.

Roses are red.

It still makes absolutely no sense and has a very gloomy opening (the result of trying to rhyme while suffering from a cold… I would advise against trying this yourself), but it fits the abab rhyme scheme now and has the basic structure.

The repetition of lines has the possibility to make a pantoum a bit boring and awkward if copied verbatim. To get around this, the punctuation of lines can be played with. This will change the rhythm of the poem depending on what kind of punctuation is used. Commas, periods, semicolons, and dashes will all slow up the rhythm and give readers the chance to pause. These are good to play with as they help set the tone of the poem and provide some variation. You can see in the example above that commas and periods have been substituted for each other or even for nothing at all. This changes the way the lines are read and makes them different, even though they are repeated word-for-word.

A note to make on the repetition of the lines, however, is that they do not actually have to be copied word-for-word from one stanza to the next, although you typically do not want to do this unless you have longer lines. Pantoums have lines that are as long or as short as the author wants them to be. Pieces with longer lines might have some small variations in their content. For example, the line

And the soldiers came running home through the rain…

might later appear as this:

The soldiers will come running home through the rain…

Pantoums can be very challenging to write, but as with pretty much everything else in the known universe, practice will make the form easier to handle. They can be as long or as short as you want them to be, but remember to stay true to the content of the poem as you write. Don’t let the form govern the poem if you have a specific purpose in mind. If you find your poem losing its original meaning and are not happy with the direction it's taking, consider playing with the structure or even changing forms. Poets often take liberties with the structure and make it fit the meaning of their piece rather than the other way around. Some will leave the first and third lines of the first stanza unrepeated in the end. Others will change the pattern of the rhyme scheme while others still will completely do away with the rhyme. Nothing is truly set in stone, but if you simply wish to write a pantoum and are willing to be flexible with your content, then you can stick to the rules and let the form take you where it will.