Literature Glossary
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Pantoum
Definition:
When it comes to poetic forms, the pantoum has more twists than Chubby Checker eating Twizzlers on a Tilt-A-Whirl.
A pantoum is made up of chain of quatrains, where the first and third lines of one quatrain are repeated as the second and forth lines in the next quatrain. There's no minimum length and no maximum length; it just has to keep up that wild repetition… until the end, that is.
In the last stanza, all bets are off. Here's how it works: Line 1 and Line 3 of the last stanza are the same as Line 2 and Line 4 of the second-to-last stanza. Line 2 of the last stanza is Line 3 from the first stanza, and Line 4—the last line of the whole poetic shebang—is a repetition of the very first line of the poem.
Phew.
If all of this sounds tricky, it's because… it is. But it also creates some thoroughly rad effects. First, all of the repetition creates an echo throughout the poem. Second, since there's no rule that says you can't change the punctuation when you repeat a line, those recurring lines can take on whole new meanings when plugged into different contexts.
Ready to see all of the twists and turns of a pantoum in action? Check out these examples:
- Natalie Diaz, "My Brother at 3 A.M."
- Donald Justice, "Pantoum of the Great Depression"
- Carolyn Kizer, "Parent's Pantoum"