Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A verse form composed of quatrains in which the second and fourth lines are repeated as the first and third lines of the following quatrain.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. See pantun.
Wiktionary
- n. A poem, similar to a villanelle, that comprises a series of quatrains, the second and fourth lines of each stanza repeated as the first and third lines of the next.
Etymologies
- From Malay pantun, via French. (Wiktionary)
- French, from Malay pantun, verse composed using metonymy. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It was full of fascinating bits I kept wanting to go back to, and a pantoum is a form where the second and fourth lines of the first stanza become the 1st and 3rd of the next, the new 2nd and 4th becoming the next 1st and 3rd and so on.”
“The pantoum is a rare form of poetry similar to a villanelle.”
“With older students, he led exercises meant to get them emulating specific forms, like the "pantoum," which includes four-line stanzas, or the three-line stanzas of the "villanelle.”
“This poem is a pantoum, a form of poetry that repeats certain lines in a particular order.”
Poetry: "Ocean Meditation" - The Creative Penn | The Creative Penn
“I have also written a pantoum about scuba diving which explains how peaceful it is for me.”
Writing Tips: 7 Lessons from Scuba Diving - The Creative Penn | The Creative Penn
“I respond with a clumsy pantoum of my own, and we become a couple.”
“He takes a last stab at writing his pantoum: As the island fades / I leave behind departure itself.”
“Today, the poet wants to compose a pantoum about the Mariel exodus, about his voyage from Cuba to Key West on a tugboat piloted by deranged exiles.”
“Great Regulars: It seems to combine elements both from that safe-as-houses mediaeval form, the sestina, and from the intricate pantoum: its accumulative structure also suggests folk-tales such as The House That Jack Built.”
“Although by the time of publication the ghazal and the pantoum had already been used and would become much more so in later years particularly as a result of the influence of Ashbery regarding the latter, there is no mention of these forms.”
THE PROSODY HANDBOOK: A GUIDE TO POETIC FORM by ROBERT BEUM & KARL SHAPIRO
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pantoum’.
-
Most Obscure Words
acatalectic, acosmism, acuate, acuminate, adscititious, adytum, akratisma, alieniloquy, allelomorph, allochiria, allodium, alnage and 620 more...
-
katiefallwest's Words
facetious, hallows, snarky, literati, cantankerous, gryphon, esoteric, fortuitous, impetus, ubiquitous, muggle, colour and 144 more...
-
researchgirl's Words
palpable, vade mecum, penumbra, ephemera, esoteric, quirky, quintessential, aphorism, amnesia, insomnia, synesthesia, apostasy and 186 more...
-
richardr's Words
marmoreal, osteology, tyromancy, metalepsis, idioglossia, tapinosis, epicaricacy, carromancy, rogation, senex, aulic, gemütlichkeit and 279 more...
-
Bibliophilia
codex, matrix, patrix, caesura, incunabulum, syllabic, pictograph, scribe, vernacular, iambic, trochaic, pentameter and 36 more...
-
Wordiepants
The pants, the pants, the pants are on fire...
A place to store all the pants fun currently scattered around the site (i.e. Wordiepants). Open to those accustomed to unearthing Wordie gems fo...wordiepants, we've got to get ..., pants issues, wonder sauna hot ..., britches, breeches, hammer capris, pants are your fr..., underpants, possibleunderpants, pants, panties and 71 more...
-
poetic notions
villanelle, sestina, acrostic, sonnet, corona of sonnets, wreath of sonnets, ode, octave, quatrain, couplet, tercet, terza rima and 41 more...
-
gtss's list
orb, mars, penultimate, transcendental, star, palinode, condusive, plenipotentiary, red, fire, raison d’être, anagram and 42 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pantoum.

rolig sorry, thtownse? why? which Rush? Limbaugh? God no. I don't even live in the States. Dec 7, 2007
thtownse Are we a Rush fan by any chance??? Dec 7, 2007
rolig Also spelled (from the original Malay, it seems), pantun. "A verse form adopted into English and French consisting of quotations with an abab rhyme scheme, linked by repeated lines." (From the OAD.) Baudelaire was one of its practitioners. Thanks, bilby! Dec 7, 2007