Editing Pantoum

{{Short description|Malay verse form}}
The '''pantoum''' is a [[Poetry#Forms|poetic form]] derived from the [[pantun]], a [[Malay Language|Malay]] verse form: specifically from the ''pantun berkait'', a series of interwoven [[quatrain]]s.

==Structure==
The '''pantoum''' is a form of [[poetry]] similar to a [[villanelle]] in that there are repeating lines throughout the poem. It is composed of a series of [[quatrain]]s; the second and fourth lines of each [[stanza]] are repeated as the first and third lines of the next stanza. The pattern continues for any number of stanzas, except for the final stanza, which differs in the repeating pattern. The first and third lines of the last stanza are the second and fourth of the [[wiktionary:Penultimate|penultimate]]; the first line of the poem is the last line of the final stanza, and the third line of the first stanza is the second of the final. Ideally, the meaning of lines shifts when they are repeated although the words remain exactly the same: this can be done by shifting [[punctuation]], [[pun]]ning, or simply recontextualizing.

A four-stanza pantoum is common (although more may be used), and in the final stanza, lines one and three from the first stanza can be repeated, or new lines can be written. The pantoum form is as follows:<ref>{{cite book|last=Sellers|first=Heather|title=The Practice of Creative Writing: A Guide for Students|year=2008|publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-312-43647-6|page=332}}</ref>

<blockquote><poem>Stanza 1
A
B
C
D

Stanza 2
B
E
D
F

Stanza 3
E
G
F
H

Stanza 4
G
I (or A or C)
H
J (or A or C)</poem></blockquote>

==Verse forms==
The pantoum is derived from the ''pantun berkait'', a series of interwoven quatrains. An English translation of such a ''pantun berkait'' appeared in [[William Marsden (orientalist)|William Marsden]]'s ''A Dictionary and Grammar of the Malayan Language'' in 1812. [[Victor Hugo]] published an unrhymed French version by [[Ernest Fouinet]] of this poem in the notes to ''[[Les Orientales]]'' (1829) and subsequent French poets began to make their own attempts at composing original "pantoums".<ref>{{cite web | url = http://faculty.washington.edu/heer/ | title = Home Page of Nicholas Heer | publisher = [[University of Washington]] | quote = Victor Hugo popularized the pantun or pantoum when in 1829 he published Ernest Fouinet's French translation of this poem in the ''Notes'' at the end of ''Les Orientales''. }} (links to a PDF file containing the original and various translations, and also to further information)</ref> [[Leconte de Lisle]] published five pantoums in his ''Poèmes tragiques'' (1884).

There is also the '''imperfect pantoum''', in which the final stanza differs from the form stated above, and the second and fourth lines may be different from any preceding lines.

[[Baudelaire]]'s famous poem "Harmonie du soir"<ref>{{cite web | url = http://fleursdumal.org/poem/142 | title = Harmonie du soir | first = Charles | last = Baudelaire | postscript = (imperfect pantoum, in French; also includes four English translations) }}</ref> is usually cited as an example of the form, but it is irregular. The stanzas have [[rhyme scheme]] ABBA rather than the expected ABAB, and the last line, which is supposed to be the same as the first, is original.

==Poets==
[[United States|American]] poets such as [[Clark Ashton Smith]], [[John Ashbery]], [[Marilyn Hacker]], [[Donald Justice]] ("Pantoum of the Great Depression"),<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/books/features/19980920.htm | title = Pantoum of the Great Depression | first = Donald | last = Justice | author-link = Donald Justice | newspaper = [[Washington Post]] | date=1998-09-21}}</ref> [[Carolyn Kizer]],<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15246 | title = Parent's Pantoum | first = Carolyn | last = Kizer | author-link = Carolyn Kizer | postscript = (includes audio clip of poet reading the poem) [(Stuart Dischell0]https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/12/she-put-on-her-lipstick-in-the-dark/306439/}}</ref> and [[David Trinidad]] have done work in this form, as has Irish poet [[Caitriona O'Reilly]]. 

The December 2015 issue of [[First Things]] featured a pantoum by James Matthew Wilson, "The Christmas Preface."<ref>{{Cite journal
| last = Wilson
| first = James Matthew
| title = The Christmas Preface
| journal = First Things
| issue = 258
| pages = 48
| date = December 2015
}}</ref>

==Music==
[[Claude Debussy]] set [[Charles Baudelaire]]'s "Harmonie du soir" in his ''[[Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire]]'' in the form of a pantoum. Perhaps inspired by this setting, [[Maurice Ravel]] entitled the second movement of his [[Piano Trio (Ravel)|Piano Trio]], "Pantoum (Assez vif)".<ref>{{Cite Grove |last=Tilmouth |first=Michael |title=Pantoum}}</ref> While Ravel never commented on the significance of the movement's title, [[Brian Newbould]] has suggested that the poetic form is reflected in the way the two themes are developed in alternation.<ref>{{Cite journal
| issn = 0027-4666
| volume = 116
| issue = 1585
| pages = 228–231
| last = Newbould
| first = Brian
| title = Ravel's Pantoum
| journal = The Musical Times
| date=March 1975
| jstor = 959089
| doi = 10.2307/959089
}}</ref>

[[Neil Peart]] used the form (with one difference from the format listed above) for the [[lyrics]] of "[[The Larger Bowl (A Pantoum)]]", the fourth track on [[Rush (band)|Rush]]'s 2007 album ''[[Snakes & Arrows]]'', also released as a single.<ref>{{cite web
  | last = Peart
  | first = Neil
  | author-link = Neil Peart
  | title = The Game of Snakes & Arrows
  | publisher = Atlantic Records
  | year = 2007
  | url = http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/rush/images/prize-every-time.pdf
  | access-date =  2013-12-13}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Hainteny]]
* [[Pantun]]
* [[Syair]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://classicalpoets.org/2016/09/19/how-to-write-a-pantoum-with-example/ "How to Write a Pantoum (With Example)"] by Carol Smallwood at the online journal of the Society of Classical Poets

; Examples of pantoums
*  Henry Austin Dobson's [http://trobar.org/prosody/pantoum.php  ''In Town''], the one example from the "classical" age.
* [http://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/flowerdrumsong/iamgoingtolikeithere.htm "I Am Going to Like It Here"] by Oscar Hammerstein (and Richard Rodgers) (imperfect pantoum from the musical ''[[Flower Drum Song]]'')
* [http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_cult/evolit/s07/day2.html "On Beauty"] by Nick Laird—a "broken" pantoum (scroll down)
* [http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2008/03/this-weeks-po-2.html "Command"] by [[Rachel Barenblat]]
* [https://www.firstthings.com/article/2015/12/the-christmas-preface "The Christmas Preface"] by James Matthew Wilson
* [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/12/she-put-on-her-lipstick-in-the-dark/306439/ "She Put on Her Lipstick in the Dark"] By [https://www.theatlantic.com/author/stuart-dischell/ Stuart Dischell]

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[[Category:Poetic forms]]
[[Category:Malay words and phrases]]