The Infinite Cyclicism of the Pantoum
Upon reading about the pantoum, an intricate style of poetry of Malay descent, I was reminded of the ghazal, which also happened to consist of several components named for its language of origin. In the pantoum, the key components include the pembayang, or introductory couplet, and the maksud, or closing couplet. It is said that the joining of these 2 elements “portray[s] ineffable cultural and universal truths” (Gotera 254–255). I interpreted this as alluding to the cyclic manner of life — which also happens to be similar to my interpretation of the ghazal’s form. I came to this conclusion based on how “the second and fourth lines of any stanza return as the first and third lines of the subsequent stanza . . . [and] the final stanza resurrects the first and third lines of the first stanza in reverse order” (Gotera 255). This layout seems intentionally cyclic as if to give the poem a sense of never-ending. Therefore, it seems that the main “universal truth” meant to be stressed in the pantoum is the way in which humans’ existence forever circles back into itself, in a pattern of life, death, life, death, etc. While this idea jumps out at me as having Buddhist connotations, it seems that this is a persistent theme among many cultures. Further, as I felt this type of flow from reading the example poems included in this chapter, it felt almost as if I was reading a sentence that never ended. While there weren’t necessarily many commas in these poems, they read as if the poet was speaking one long sentence, and every time I thought it’d soon be ended with a period, there would only be more commas to drag it on. On second thought, maybe drag isn’t the best term to describe the pantoum’s flow, as it implies a rather unpleasant experience. Rather, I enjoyed the pantoum’s unique manner of rhythmically linking its concepts, as it made for a compelling, smooth read.
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Gotera, Vince. “The Pantoum’s Postcolonial Pedigree.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Eds Annie Finch and Kathrine Varnes. U of Michigan P, 2002. pp. 254–261.
