Pantoum is a poetry style with four stanzas and recurring lines. The first line is repeated at the end, and the first and third lines of each stanza reappear in the following one. The pantoum relies on repetition for structure, and the echoing lines slow the poem’s progress, creating a reflective experience. Its origins date back to the 15th-century Malay pantun, and it was introduced to the Western world in the 19th century. The first modern pantoums were created by Ernest Fouinet in French without fixed rhyme schemes or meter, and it became fashionable among poets in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Pantoum is a style of poetry characterized by four stanzas and recurring lines. In a pantoum, the first line of the poem is repeated in the final line, and the first and third lines of each stanza reappear in the following stanza. Its origins date back to the 15th-century Malay pantun, which was introduced to the Western world in the 19th century.
A pantoum is built on a four-line stanza, or a quatrain. Unlike other forms of poetry, there is no specified length or meter for these lines. While the original Malay form has an ABAB rhyme scheme, where the first and third lines rhyme with each other as do the second and fourth, this convention is typically dropped by French and English haunts.
Instead, pantoum relies on repetition for structure. In this form of poetry, the first line of the poem is repeated like the last line. Typically the third line of this first quatrain appears in the second line of the last one. Also, the second and fourth lines of a quatrain appear in the first and third lines of the following stanza.
Often, these refrains undergo minor changes, such as in punctuation or the swapping of singular forms for plural, but the line must still be recognizably echoed. In the hands of a skilled poet, these refrains often undergo a subtle shift in meaning by changing the emphasis or context of the lines. The repeated lines give the poem its structure, but do more than just provide the rhythm for the pantoum. The echoing lines slow the progress of the poems, creating a more reflective experience. Repetition also makes the poem easier to absorb on a first reading or hearing.
The roots of pantoum can be traced back to the pantun of Malay. The pantun has existed as an oral tradition, both sung and recited, for centuries. Typically, the pantun included an ABAB rhyme scheme and a regular rhythm. In 1812, an English translation of a Malay pantun was published in A Dictionary and Grammar of the Malay Language, introducing the style to the West.
Ernest Fouinet is typically credited with creating the first modern pantoums, written in French without fixed rhyme schemes or metre. Fouinet’s work was published by Victor Hugo in 1929. Pantoums became fashionable among poets writing in French and English throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Charles Baudelaire, John Ashbery, Leconte de Lisle and Donald Justice are among the celebrated poets who worked in the pantoum form.
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