Poetry Friday: The Pantoum
As a poet, I’m always interested in new poetic forms. Join Hands! by Pat Mora (with photographs by George Ancona, Charlesbridge, 2008) introduced me to the pantoum. The pantoum is a poetic form derived from Malaysia. It is composed of quatrains where the second and fourth lines are repeated as the first and third lines of the following quatrain. In Join Hands!, Mora uses the form (with slight alterations in her repeating lines) to create a poem about celebrating life through dancing, singing, masquerading and parading. The book takes you through the lines, one line per page, with accompanying photograph per line. A few Spanish words like ‘amigos’ and ‘canciones’ are used. (Mora is known for her bilingual Spanish/English books.) The explanation of the form comes at the end of the book. I wish it had come at the beginning, however! Reading the text linearly while viewing the picture made it seem a bit confusing. However, I did enjoy the lively photographs by George Ancona, accompanying each line. They feature children dancing and strutting and holding hands.
Have you heard of the pantoum or tried your hand at writing one? A few months after I read this book, I encountered a pantoum written by Canadian poet, Robyn Sarah in her latest book, A Pause for Breath. The form seemed vaguely familiar when I suddenly realized I had encountered it in Mora’s book.
This week’s Poetry Friday host is Danika at Teaching Books.
March 5th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
We gave this book to my 5 year old niece last Christmas and she loved it! She thought it was neat that it included some spanish words that she had heard on the Dora the Explorer tv show and she really liked the photos.
I agree with you on wishing that the explanation on the form was at the beginning of the book instead. It seemed a bit strange on the first go round but then made sense after reading at the end of the book that is based on pantoum ( a form I had never come across before!).
March 5th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
This is a great book!
March 5th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
This poetic form is actually known as ‘pantun’ not ‘pantoum’ in Malay. And normally, the ending of the first line rhymes with the ending of the third line; and similarly for the second and fourth line, in a single quatrain. But it’s wonderful to see a Malay verse form being used in an international context!
However I am writing to find out how would we go about getting a book published in Malaysia reviewed by papertigers.org?
March 5th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
As a follow-up to the previous comment about the ‘pantun’, normally the first and second lines are known as ‘bayangan’ (images) i.e. they don’t have to mean anything in particular, they just have to rhyme. But the third and fourth line delivers the message.
March 5th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
If you do get this book out, I suggest you read the pantoum section first so that you get a sense of the form first. When I read this to my daughter, she seemed a bit confused by the repetition. However, if you’re musically inclined — you might get that aspect of the book right away.
March 5th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Thanks for adding another book to my reading list.
Laura Evans
March 5th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Tutu Dutta, thanks for the clarification. Mora has indeed followed the rhyme scheme you’ve stated in her book and I neglected to mention that aspect of the ‘pantun!’ We at PaperTigers would love to see your book; just send a note to the PaperTigers website editors Aline or Marjorie. Full book reviews are usually done on the website. Just click on the above “PaperTigers website home” button above and navigate from there.
March 6th, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Yes, Tutu Dutta, do email me, on marjorie(at)papertigers(dot)org!
March 9th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Oh, Pat Mora’s great. I’ll have to check this out. Thanks!
March 11th, 2010 at 11:42 am
Since you’re a poetry lover, I’d like to invite you and your readers to join in on my poetry survey. I am looking for a list of your 10 favorite classic poems. Read more about it here.
March 12th, 2010 at 8:45 am
Thanks for responding to my query, Marjorie (I wasn’t expecting it!). I have already given your email contact to the publisher, Marshall Cavendish (Malaysia) and they say that the Singapore office is following up with this. Anyway, the S’pore Book Council is organising the ‘Asian Festival of Children’s Content 2010′ , May 6-9 and I noticed that PaperTigers is one of the supporters!