Pantoum and Syntax
2 min readMar 22, 2021
The Pantoum, just like the Renku, Haiku, and Ghazal, is another form of poetry that follows a spefic form. The poem is a quatrain that follows abab rhyme scheme. Each line in the poem will consist of 8 to 12 sylables. The first two lines of the poem set the image and meaning of the poem to prepare for the last two lines. To be more specific, the opening, known as the pembayang, depicts the imagery, and the closing lines, or masked, clarifies the meaning of the imagery created in the beginning.
The pantoum is known to be used to “express love, lyricisms, and other vertities (Gotera 255).” Pantoums use syntax to create a “full circle” that gives the reader a sense of a closing to the vertities they are expressing. In Chain-Letter Pantoum written by Vince Gotera, he uses syntax to create the idea that, these chain letters will never stop bringing bad Karma if the recipiant doesnt keep the chain letter alive. His pantoum comes full circle by starting and ending his poem off with the line “Don’t throw this letter away! Horrible consequences (Gotera 260)!” By starting and ending the poem with the same line, it gives off the feeling as if the poem is on loop, and is never ending. This helps Gotera create the idea that these chain letter are never ending as well, and the more people who break the loop, the more people who face bad fortune. Without this form of syntax, the idea of this never ending bad karma would not have been provoked throughout the pantoum.
An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Eds. Anne Finch and Katherine Varnes. Ann Arbor: U. of Michigan Press, 2002. 255.
Gotera, Vince “Chain-Letter Pantoum.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Eds. Anne Finch and Katherine Varnes. Ann Arbor: U. of Michigan Press, 2002. 260.
