Poetic Forms – Part 5

Poetic Forms – Part 5English 12 - TolleyPantoum, Villanelle, Rondeau

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…

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.

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 spontaneityThey beg us to be dignified like them.

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.

Pantoum

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.

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

Villanelle

Villanelle

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.

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.

Rondeau• John McCrae "In Flanders Fields":• In Flanders fields the poppies growBetween 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 agoWe 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 throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high! If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Flanders fields.

Rondeau Example

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.