PANTOUM FORM

Today, we need to discuss enjambment - go HERE 
 Now, let's review "Good Girl" sonnet


Your homework is to read over the pantoum form and write an explication of the poem "PUNK PANTOUM" or "ATOMIC PANTOUM". Pay close attention to this form as it could be a form you might choose to use to write your own poem.

STILL-BIRTH PANTOUM

On a platform, I heard someone call out your name:
No, Laetitia, no.
It wasn’t my train—the doors were closing,
but I rushed in, searching for your face.

But no Laetitia. No.
No one in that car could have been you,
but I rushed in, searching for your face:
no longer an infant. A woman now, blond, thirty-two.

No one in that car could have been you.
Laetitia-Marie was the name I had chosen.
No longer an infant. A woman now, blond, thirty-two:
I sometimes go months without remembering you.

Laetitia-Marie was the name I had chosen:
I was told not to look. Not to get attached—
I sometimes go months without remembering you.
Some griefs bless us that way, not asking much space.

I was told not to look. Not to get attached.
It wasn’t my train—the doors were closing.
Some griefs bless us that way, not asking much space.
On a platform, I heard someone calling your name.

You need to know a little bit about the PUNK movement in the 70s. You might want to listen to the following songs, "Anarchy in the UK" by the Sex Pistols; "London Calling" by The Clash; "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones; "Speak No Evil" by Television. You could also listen to Richard Hell's "Blank Generation" and Lou Reed's "Heroin". These songs could give you a backdrop for the poem. You could also read up on the PUNK movement on the web.

FORM: PANTOUM

A Malayan Form. A pantoum consists of an indefinite number of quatrain stanzas with particular restrictions: lines 2 and 4 are repetons- the become become lines 1 and 3 of the following stanza. The pantoum usually ends with a quatrain whose repetons are lines 1 and 3 of the first stanza in reverse order.

So the pattern might be:

Quatrains 1

1
2
3
4

Quatrain 2

2
5
4
6

Quatrain 3

5
7
6
8


Quatrain 4

7
9
8
10

Quatrain 5

9
11
10
12

Quatrain 6

11
3
12
1

According to poets.org "one exciting aspect of the pantoum is its subtle shifts in meaning that can occur as repeated phrases are revised with different punctuation and thereby given a new context." Also, "an incantation can be created by a pantoum's interlocking pattern of rhyme and repetition; as the lines reverberate between stanzas, they fill the poem with echoes."

When you read the poem play close attention to each image and think about what the image can mean. How does the meaning of the image change with the repetition of the image in the next stanza?  

For PUNK PANTOUM go HERE