Political Poem Draft & The Triolet & The Pantoum

Please complete and turn in your political poem draft in your workshop folder. Please make sure the file name includes "political poem" and your name.

After completing your political poem draft started last class, please try another closed form poem:

The Triolet

The Triolet was originally a French medieval poem often used to express humor (similar to the limerick). However, poets have used the form for other reasons (example politically, or spiritually).

The form includes:
8 lines (the poem is only eight lines long)
It uses two rhymes (An "A" and a "B" rhyme -- see scheme below)
5 of the 8 lines are repeated. This is called a REFRAIN.
The first line is repeated as the 4th and 7th line.
The second line is repeated as the 8th line.

Rhyme Scheme:
A
B
A Rhymes with 1st line.
A Identical to 1st line.
A Rhymes with 1st line.
B Rhymes with 2nd line.
A Identical to 1st line.
B Identical to 2nd line.

Some examples:

How Great My Grief
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

How great my grief, my joys how few,
Since first it was my fate to know thee!
- Have the slow years not brought to view
How great my grief, my joys how few,
Nor memory shaped old times anew,
Nor loving-kindness helped to show thee
How great my grief, my joys how few,
Since first it was my fate to know thee?

Untitled
Robert Bridges (1844-1930)

When first we met, we did not guess
That Love would prove so hard a master;
Of more than common friendliness
When first we met we did not guess
Who could foretell the sore distress,
The inevitable disaster,
When first we met? We did not guess
That Love would prove so hard a master.

To a Fat Lady Seen from the Train
Frances Cornford (1886-1960)

O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?
O fat white woman whom nobody loves,
Why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
When the grass is soft as the breast of doves
And shivering sweet to the touch?
O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?

Tips:
1. The repetition reinforces the most important line (and therefore idea). Make sure your repeated line is meaningful and important.
2. You may wish to create a strong couplet. These two lines should be interesting enough to open the poem and close the poem. (They also provide most of the material for the poem itself.)
3. The repetition should feel natural and add something to the poem. Revision should smooth out the rhythm and meter of the lines.

Variations: Alter the punctuation used in the refrains, or use homonyms.
While a refrain line should sound identical to the line it echoes, its meaning does not have to be fixed. Puns and other wordplay may enrich a triolet.

The Pantoum

Similar to the triolet & villanelle, the pantoum uses refrain and repetition, as well as rhyme in a series of quatrains.

The effect of the pantoum with its repeated lines and back-and-forth motion may suggest a topic. People describe its effect as hypnotic, doom-laden, dreamy, or wading in treacle. According to writer Joyce Carol Oates, it is a form which communicates “extreme states of mind: mania, paranoia, delusion.” Additionally, the poem’s repeating lines may suggest something that recurs as a subject (“Calendar” is a pantoum about the cycling of seasons):

Example: Violet Nesdoly's Calendar

Essence of spring drifts from the sticky buds,
Robin's lively lilt now wakes me early.
Under the clouds, crocuses clutch a tight bouquet.
Humming lawnmowers are summer's elevator music.

Robin's lively lilt now wakes me early,
The smell of sunscreen seeps through all my clothes.
Humming lawnmowers are summer's elevator music.
Fruit stand has berries and apples by the box!

The smell of sunscreen seeps through all my clothes;
Your fun is over, mocks the drenching rain.
Fruit stand has pears and apples by the box:
Houses don sequins and tuxedos.

Your fun is over, mocks the drenching rain.
We laugh and push each other's cars through mounds of snow.
Houses doff sequins and tuxedos:
Naked trees stand pensive in the cold.

We laugh and push each other's cars through mounds of snow
Under the clouds, crocuses clutch a tight bouquet.
Naked trees stand pensive in the cold;
Essence of spring drifts from the sticky buds.

The form looks like this:
1. Lines are grouped into quatrains (4-line stanzas).
2. The last line is the same as the first line.
3. The poem can have ANY number of quatrains (try at least 3).
4. Lines may be of any length, but count syllables and keep your meter/rhythm fluid.
5. The Pantoum has a rhyme scheme of ABAB in each quatrain--lines rhyme alternately.
6. For all quatrains (except the first), the first line of the current quatrain repeats the second line in the following quatrain; and the third line of the current quatrain repeats the fourth line of the next quatrain. (See below)
7. In addition, for the last and final quatrain, its second line repeats the (so-far unrepeated) third line in the first quatrain; and its last line repeats the (so-far unrepeated) first line of the first quatrain.

The pattern of line-repetition looks like this--where the lines of the first quatrain are represented by the numbers "1 2 3 4":

1 2 3 4 - Lines in first quatrain.
2 5 4 6 - Lines in second quatrain. The second line of the first stanza is the first line in the second quatrain. The last line of the first quatrain is the THIRD line of the second quatrain, etc.
5 7 6 8 - Lines in third quatrain.
7 9 8 10 - Lines in fourth quatrain.
9 3 10 1 - Lines in fifth and final quatrain.

This is an example for 5 quatrains. You could have more or fewer. REMEMBER: The last line of the poem is the 1st line of the poem.

Further examples:
Parent's Pantoum by Carolyn Kizer
Another Lullaby for Insomniacs by A.E. Stallings

Please complete this poem (the Pantoum - first draft for next class). The Triolet is due at the end of today's class and should be turned in with ALL the poem drafts you have completed this marking period. By the way, today is the last day of the marking period. Period. No late work will be accepted after 8th period today.