"A pantun is like a hawk with a chicken, it takes its time about striking." – Malay proverb
A pantun is form of
verse originating in
Malaysia. It was introduced to the west via
France by
Ernest Fouinet and popularized by
Victor Hugo. A number of French and
English writers have tried their hands at it, but it still remains a very obscure form of
poetry. Along its journey, the form of the pantun evolved (as did the
sonnet on its path from
Italy to
England) and the name was westernized to pantoum.
As it is used in western poetry, the pantoum is composed of a number of
quatrains. The second and fourth lines of each
stanza become the first and third lines of the next, and this is repeated throughout. The last line of the poem is the same as the first. The closest analogue in western poetry is probably the
villanelle, though the pantoum does not
rhyme like the villanelle, and is even more obscure. The best example of such verse in English I’ve found is by the
American poet
Peter Mienke, "
Atomic Pantoum".
On a personal note, I was once involved in judging a contest of
high school art and writing, and one of the entries was a pantoum about, of all things,
math. I was the only judge who actually knew what a pantoum was, so that should tell you how obscure it is. Unfortunately, the work only received an honorable mention, over my objections. I thought they should have won first prize just for knowing more than the judges did.