Pantoum Poetry

The pantoum style was orginally sung, but the importance of rhyming has diminished throughout the years. It is traditionally composed of four-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines used as the first and third lines of the following stanza. Often times, the first and last lines of the poem are the same also.

Parent's Pantoum

by Carolyn Kizer

Where did these enormous children come from,
More ladylike than we have ever been?
Some of ours look older than we feel.
How did they appear in their long dresses

More ladylike than we have ever been?
But they moan about their aging more than we do,
In their fragile heels and long black dresses.
They say they admire our youthful spontaneity.

They moan about their aging more than we do,
A somber group--why don't they brighten up?
Though they say they admire our youthful spontaneity
They beg us to be dignified like them

As they ignore our pleas to brighten up.
Someday perhaps we'll capture their attention
Then we won't try to be dignified like them
Nor they to be so gently patronizing.

Someday perhaps we'll capture their attention.
Don't they know that we're supposed to be the stars?
Instead they are so gently patronizing.
It makes us feel like children--second-childish?

Perhaps we're too accustomed to be stars.
The famous flowers glowing in the garden,
So now we pout like children. Second-childish?
Quaint fragments of forgotten history?

Our daughters stroll together in the garden,
Chatting of news we've chosen to ignore,
Pausing to toss us morsels of their history,
Not questions to which only we know answers.

Eyes closed to news we've chosen to ignore,
We'd rather excavate old memories,
Disdaining age, ignoring pain, avoiding mirrors.
Why do they never listen to our stories?

Because they hate to excavate old memories
They don't believe our stories have an end.
They don't ask questions because they dread the answers.
They don't see that we've become their mirrors,

We offspring of our enormous children.

This poem is the classic story of “when I was a kid…” transformed into literature. The first stanza references the constant rush for young people to grow up without appreciating their youth. This neglect leads them into an unsatisfying adult life, unable to take advice from their elders. In the fifth stanza, the parents are resentful of the children for outshining them. This is a result of their lack of patience which has been displayed throughout the poem.

                The repetition of almost half the poem supports it's consistent significance. Each reoccurring line is a reoccurring trait or problem in the relationship of parent and child.  The envoi of the poem does display the reflection of the parent on themselves, realizing that the child is indeed their creation and can only blame themselves for the result.

Spring Pantoum by Maylee Bossy

(please comment on this poem)

Sunlight bleeds through forest canopy
Slipping between my fingers
The daisies glare at me with sympathy
When crushed their scent still lingers

Slipping between my fingers
White petals soft caress
When crushed their scent still lingers
Care free, I could care less

White petals soft caress
Green blades tickle my feet
Care free, I could care less
It's nearing summer's heat

Green blades tickle my feet
Content, yet all alone
It's nearing summer's heat
Reaching for a home

Content, yet all alone
Desperately searching for what I won't find
Reaching for a home
Each breath awkwardly timed

Desperately searching for what I won't find
Sunlight bleeds through forest canopy
Each breath awkwardly timed
The daisies glare at me with sympathy