Poetic Forms – Part 5

1. Poetic Forms – Part 5 English 12 - Tolley Pantoum, Villanelle, Rondeau

2. Pantoum • Background: originated in Malaysia in the fifteenth-century as a short folk poem, typically made up of two rhyming couplets that were recited or sung. • However…

3. Pantoum • Western writers altered and adapted the form. • The modern pantoum is a poem of any length, composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza. The last line of a pantoum is often the same as the first.

4. Pantoum - Example • Carolyn Kizer’s "Parent's Pantoum,” 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.

5. Pantoum • Effect: • subtle shifts in meaning that can occur as repeated phrases are revised with different punctuation and thereby given a new context or tone. • The pantoum's interlocking pattern of rhyme and repetition fills the poem with echoes. • Causes slowed effect, deeper reflection.

6. Pantoum • Iva's Pantoum •   by Marilyn Hacker • We pace each other for a long time. • I packed my anger with the beef jerky. • You are the baby on the mountain. I am • in a cold stream where I led you. • I packed my anger with the beef jerky. • You are the woman sticking her tongue out • in a cold stream where I led you. • You are the woman with spring water palms. • You are the woman sticking her tongue out. • I am the woman who matches sounds. • You are the woman with spring water palms. • I am the woman who copies. You are the woman who matches sounds. You are the woman who makes up words. You are the woman who copies her cupped palm with her fist in clay. I am the woman who makes up words. You are the woman who shapes a drinking bowl with her fist in clay. I am the woman with rocks in her pockets. (last line is:) …We pace each other for a long time.

7. Villanelle • highly structured • nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. • The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. • The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem's two concluding lines.

8. Villanelle • Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2

9. Villanelle • Do not go gentle into that good night, 
Old age should burn and rave at close of day; 
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. • Though wise men at their end know dark is right, 
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night. • Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, 
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. • Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, 
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, 
Do not go gentle into that good night. • Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, 
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. • And you, my father, there on the sad height, 
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

10. Villanelle • One Art •   by Elizabeth Bishop • The art of losing isn't hard to master; • so many things seem filled with the intent • to be lost that their loss is no disaster. • Lose something every day. Accept the fluster • of lost door keys, the hourbadlyspent. • The art of losing isn't hard to master. • Thenpracticelosingfarther, losingfaster: • places, and names, and where it was you meant • to travel. None of these will bring disaster. • I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or • next-to-last, of three loved houses went. • The art of losing isn't hard to master. • I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, • some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent. • I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster. • —Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture • I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident • the art of losing's not too hard to master • though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

11. Rondeau • Background: • The rondeau began as a lyric form in France, popular among medieval court poets and musicians. • Originally a musical vehicle devoted to emotional subjects such as spiritual worship, courtship, romance, and the changing of seasons.

12. Rondeau • Form: • Named after the French word for "round" • Rondeau is characterized by the repeating lines of the refrain, and the two rhyme sounds throughout: • Fifteen lines, eight to ten syllables each, divided into a quintet, a quatrain, and a sestet. • The refrain consists of the first few words or the entire first line of the first stanza, and it recurs as the last line of both the second and third stanzas. • Two rhymes guide the music of the rondeau, whose rhyme scheme is as follows (R representing the refrain): aabba aabR aabbaR.

13. Rondeau • John McCrae "In Flanders Fields": • In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row, 
That mark our place, and in the sky, 
The larks, still bravely singing, fly, 
Scarce heard amid the guns below. • We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 
Loved and were loved, and now we lieIn Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe! 
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high! 
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Flanders fields.

14. The Fun of the Fair, by Elisabeth Sheaffer The fun of the fair, sound and sight, Swirling circles of brilliant light, Octopus, dodgems, Ferris wheel And then there’s a truly tasty meal, A hot dog and onion delight. The wailing ghost train haunts the night, Goose bumps form as the people squeal And everyone unites to feel The fun of the fair. The merry-go-round in full flight, Pink and white popcorn warm and light, These sounds and sights help me to steal Echoes of youth and then I can feel The thrill of a magical night, The fun of the fair. Rondeau Example

15. Homework: • Write 2 of the 3 types of poems – your own originals! • (Pantoum, Villanelle, Rondeau) • Be sure to follow the form rules for each! • Add your 2 poems to your “Poetry Zine” Google Doc by the start of next class.