THE PANTOUM

Author's Comments

Victor-Marie Hugo is responsible for introducing the Malaysian Pantun to European writers. The Pantoum is a fixed form consisting of a varying number of four-line stanzas (quatrains) with a rhyme scheme of abab. The second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated to form the first and third lines of the succeeding stanza, with the first and third lines of the first stanza forming the second and fourth of the last stanza, but in reverse order, so that the opening and closing lines of the poem are identical. The poems listed below are my modest attempts at creating the Pantoum:

* That Possums’ Wear

* The Asian Tsunami of 2004

Victor-Marie Hugo (February 26, 1802 - May 22, 1885) was a French poet, novelist, playwright, essayist, visual artist, statesman and human rights campaigner. He was recognized as the most influential Realist writer of the 19th Century. His birthplace was Besancon, France and is burial spot is in Paris, France.

What sets apart the Pantoum from the original Malaysian Pantun? The Pantun follows the same rhyme and line patterns of the Pantoum but differs in these essential respects. Though it is traditionally improvised, the theme or the meaning is conveyed in the second to lines of each quatrain, while the first two lines present an image or allusion which may or may not have an obvious connection with the theme.

An allusion is an implied or indirect reference to something assumed to be known, such as a historical event or personage, a well-known quotation from literature or famous work of art. It can be used by the poet as a means of imagery, since like a symbol; it can suggest ideas by connotation. Like allegories and parodies, its effectiveness depends upon the reader’s acquaintance with the reference alluded to in the write.

Imagery is any literary reference to the five senses (sight, touch, smell, hearing, taste). Essentially, imagery is any words that create a picture in one’s head. Such images can be planted by using figures of speech, such as similes, metaphors, personification, and assonance.

An allegory is the figurative illustration of truth or generalization about human conduct or experience in a narrative or description by the use of symbolic fictional figures and actions which the reader then interprets as a likeness to the subject’s properties and circumstances. Though similar to a series of symbols and an extended metaphor, the meaning of an allegory is more direct and less subject to ambiguity than a symbol. The allegory is distinguishable from an extended metaphor in that the literal equivalent of an allegory’s figurative comparison is not usually expressed. The best know allegory is English Literature is Edmund Spenser’s poem, “The faerie Queene.”

A parody is a ludicrous imitation, usually intended for comic effect but more so for ridicule, of both the style and content of another work. The humour depends upon the reader’s familiarity with the original. Sir John Suckling’s poem, “A Ballad upon a Wedding” is a parody of an epithalamium (a wedding song or poem in honour of the bride and bridegroom).