Exercise Two: The Pantoum

The pantoum is a sort of "folk" song or poem that, to my surprise, originated in Malaysia. I was surprised by the origination because I had always assumed it was a French form. My assumption was based on sound reasoning, I assure you - many of the most famous French poets have used the form, among them Leconte de Lisle, Charles Baudelaire, and, one of my favorite authors, Victor Hugo (who did not write his own pantoum, but translated the pantoum of another poet, Ernest Fouinet; Hugo's publication of this translation is credited for sparking French interest in the form due, in no small part, to the high regard just about every French writer has/had for Hugo).

The form can be of any length, though many poets create very elaborate versions. It is a sort of piggy-back form that uses quatrains (that is, stanzas made of four lines) with a layered rhyme scheme. This is easier to illustrate than explain:

The first quatrain (composed as iambic pentameter here) has an abab rhyme scheme:

-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B

Then the next quatrain picks up by borrowing the second rhyme and adding a new one (or you can recycle the "A" rhyme, but this is rare):

-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C

The form, as you can see, can basically go on for as long as you like. What a lot of poets do for fun is they create pantoums that end on the same rhyme or even whole line as they began, creating a sort of refrain. To do that with the construction above, we would simply reintroduce the "A" rhyme in the third quatrain:

-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A

Voila! It's a versatile and fun form to experiment with. How you carry over the rhyme is not as important as simply being sure to carry it over. Take a look at this Charles Baudelaire's famous pantoum "Harmonie du soir" in the original French so you may see the rhyme scheme. He tweaks the rhyming scheme a bit, but still manages to create the leap-frog effect. He also only uses two rhymes (much easier to do in French than in English):

A         Voici venir les temps où vibrant sur sa tige
B         Chaque fleur s'évapore ainsi qu'un encensoir;
B         Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir;
A         Valse mélancolique et langoureux vertige!

B         Chaque fleur s'évapore ainsi qu'un encensoir;
A         Le violon frémit comme un coeur qu'on afflige;
A         Valse mélancolique et langoureux vertige!
B         Le ciel est triste et beau comme un grand reposoir.

A         Le violon frémit comme un coeur qu'on afflige,
B         Un coeur tendre, qui hait le néant vaste et noir!
B         Le ciel est triste et beau comme un grand reposoir;
A         Le soleil s'est noyé dans son sang qui se fige.

B         Un coeur tendre, qui hait le néant vaste et noir,
A         Du passé lumineux recueille tout vestige!
A         Le soleil s'est noyé dans son sang qui se fige...
B         Ton souvenir en moi luit comme un ostensoir!

Here's a translated version of the poem by William Aggeler. You'll notice that the rhyme scheme simply cannot be held up in English:

The season is at hand when swaying on its stem
Every flower exhales perfume like a censer;
Sounds and perfumes turn in the evening air;
Melancholy waltz and languid vertigo!

Every flower exhales perfume like a censer;
The violin quivers like a tormented heart;
Melancholy waltz and languid vertigo!
The sky is sad and beautiful like an immense altar.

The violin quivers like a tormented heart,
A tender heart, that hates the vast, black void!
The sky is sad and beautiful like an immense altar;
The sun has drowned in his blood which congeals...

A tender heart that hates the vast, black void
Gathers up every shred of the luminous past!
The sun has drowned in his blood which congeals...
Your memory in me glitters like a monstrance!

Step One
We are going to create a very simple two stanza pantoum to start out with, just to get our feet wet. Use this pattern for your stanzas:

-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B

-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C

Your subject matter can be anything you want for this step.

Step Two
This step is all about making the form work for you. This form uses repetition, so when you think of a subject for a your poem, think of something that repeats. One of the most lovely examples of this is Donald Justice's poem "Pantoum of the Great Depression":

Our lives avoided tragedy
Simply by going on and on,
Without end and with little apparent meaning.
Oh, there were storms and small catastrophes.

Simply by going on and on
We managed. No need for the heroic.
Oh, there were storms and small catastrophes.
I don't remember all the particulars.

We managed. No need for the heroic.
There were the usual celebrations, the usual sorrows.
I don't remember all the particulars.
Across the fence, the neighbors were our chorus.

There were the usual celebrations, the usual sorrows
Thank god no one said anything in verse.
The neighbors were our only chorus,
And if we suffered we kept quiet about it.

At no time did anyone say anything in verse.
It was the ordinary pities and fears consumed us,
And if we suffered we kept quiet about it.
No audience would ever know our story.

It was the ordinary pities and fears consumed us.
We gathered on porches; the moon rose; we were poor.
What audience would ever know our story?
Beyond our windows shone the actual world.

We gathered on porches; the moon rose; we were poor.
And time went by, drawn by slow horses.
Somewhere beyond our windows shone the world.
The Great Depression had entered our souls like fog.

And time went by, drawn by slow horses.
We did not ourselves know what the end was.
The Great Depression had entered our souls like fog.
We had our flaws, perhaps a few private virtues.

But we did not ourselves know what the end was.
People like us simply go on.
We have our flaws, perhaps a few private virtues,
But it is by blind chance only that we escape tragedy.

And there is no plot in that; it is devoid of poetry

What Justice does with the pantoum is he makes the form emphasize the endlessness of the time. He also takes the form a bit further by using refrain rather than rhyme scheme (this makes the poem sound much more like a villanelle). For this step, choose a specific subject that can be assisted by repetition and write two more stanzas using the same model in Step One.

Step Three
Now that you have a hang of using the rhyme scheme and of focusing on a subject that will make the pantoum work for it, it is time to push yourself by creating a pantoum that folds onto itself by using the following pattern:

-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B

-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C

-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A (refrain of first line)

Step Four
If that wasn't difficult enough, now you can create a pantoum that models Baudelaire's rhyming pattern (but a little looser since you are probably composing in English):

-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A

-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ B

-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ A
-/ -/ -/ -/ -/ C

The possibilities are endless. I'd encourage you to keep pushing this form, even use Donald Justice's pattern where he replaces the rhyme with refrain or make up your own patterns.