Acting
Dreams & A Glass of Wine
It all
started with a glass of wine
They were in celebration mode
The heady red spirit was fine
But they had violated the code
They were in celebration mode
All set for fun they went on stage
But they had violated the code
They could not drink being underage
All set for fun they went on stage
To put up their bravest Act till date
They could not drink being underage
Not surprisingly they had a long wait
To put up their bravest Act till date
The Authorities had their spies around
Not surprisingly they had a long wait
With wine on their breath they were found
The Authorities had their spies around
Four young tipsy boys were led away
With wine on their breath they were found
All their acting dreams went astray
Four young tipsy boys were led away
The heady red spirit was fine
All their acting dreams went astray
It all started with a glass of wine
*Pantoum:
In western poetry Pantoum is the word used
for the Malayan pantun, a poetic form that first
appeared in the 15th century in Malayan Literature
(Padgett, 133), specifically, the pantun berkait,
a series of interwoven quatrains. An English translation
of a pantun berkait appeared in William
Marsden's A Dictionary and Grammar of the Malayan
Language in 1812 (Wikipedia).
In English
the pantoum has become a poem of indeterminate
length. It is composed of quatrains in which the
second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the
first and third lines of the next stanza, continuing
throughout the poem, until the last stanza, where the
first line of the poem reappears as the last and, in
some English pantoums, the third line of the
first stanza becomes the second line of the last stanza
(as above). Thus, the pantoum begins and ends with
the same line, and throughout the poem, the cross rhymes
scissor the couplets, developing different themes
concurrently, one theme in the first couplet and a
second theme in the second couplet (Preminger). Ideally,
the meaning of lines shifts when they are repeated
although the words remain exactly the same: this can be
done by shifting punctuation, punning, or simply
recontextualizing (Wikipedia). The use of rhyme in
Pantoum is optional (Padgett).
The Pantoun
was introduced to the West by the French orientalist
Ernest Fourinet and adopted by Victor Hugo. Other French
writers who write pantoums include Théodore de Banville,
Louise Siefert, Leconte de Lisle, Théophile Gautier and
with considerable variation, Charles Baudelaire
(Preminger).
In 19th
century England the Pantoum was developed Austin Dobson
in "The Town" and James Brander Matthews in "En Route" (Padget).
American
poets such as John Ashbery, Some Trees (1956),
Marilyn Hacker, Donald Justice, Carolyn Kizer, and David
Trinidad have done work in the pantoum form. Neil Peart
used the form for the lyrics of "The Larger Bowl (A
Pantoum)" on Rush's 2007 album, Snakes & Arrows
(Wikipedia).
Part of the
pleasure of the pantoum is the way
recurring lines hypnotically and gently flow in and out
of each other sometimes surprising us when they
unexpectedly fit together in revealing ways.
Resources
"Pantoum".
The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics.
Alex Preminger and T. V. F. Brogan, editors. MJF
Books: Princeton University Press. 1993. pp. 875-876.
"Pantoum".
The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms,
Ron Padgett, editor. New York: Teachers & Writers
Collaborative, 1987, pp. 133-135.
"Pantoum".
Wikipedia
About
Sandra Martyres, IN
Sandra
Martyres - I live in Mumbai- India and work with a
multinational bank. I hold a Masters in Economics and
enjoy reading books on Management and Finance. In
addition, I have other hobbies like music, reading
novels, philately, theatre, travelling and poetry
writing. While I have always had a fascination for
writing poetry, I have only recently i.e. over the past
four years been writing regularly. I am particularly
interested in the Japanese poetry forms like haiku,
senryu and tanka. I also enjoy writing narrative poems.
This is
Sandra Martyres first appearance in Sketchbook.
