A bit of an experiment here! How much can you squeeze a Pantoum out of shape before it stops being a Pantoum and how tightly can you constrain free verse within a given form before it stops being free verse? Is this a Pantoum or is is free verse - or is it just a poem that's tripped over its feet and gone off the rails?

The traditional Pantoum is patterned so that the second and fourth lines of each quatrain are repeated to become the first and third lines of the next one. The first and third lines of the first quatrain are repeated as the second and fourth lines of the last one, to close the loop. Whilst my poem follows the pattern, it has exercised its right, as free verse, not to be arranged in quatrains.

Also, traditional Pantoums generally have a regular rhythm, and a rhyme scheme of ABAB in each quatrain. Again, being free verse, mine doesn't.

If you are interested in such discussions, perhaps you should enrol in Pantygynt's next Free Verse course!

Image credit: Fred Astaire in "Daddy Long Legs", photo Creative Commons

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