Pantoum 2 - Comment!

Oblique Eulogy II
by Juditha Dowd

What is death like, she asks,
as if she believes I know.
Like sleep, I venture, like not waking?
She nods, dubious.

As if she believes I know,
my mother comes in a dream.She nods, dubious.
Her eyebrows meet like Frida Kahlo’s.

My mother comes in a dream,bends to three striped kittens in my bed.
Her eyebrows meet like Frida Kahlo’s—I’ve never noticed this.

Bent over kittens in my bed
she fades into me, becomes me
and I hardly notice.
It’s expected, unremarkable.

She fades, becomes me.
Fused, we resemble neither one.
Unremarkable, expected,
above my bed her face was young.

Fused, we resemble neither one.
In sleep, never waking,
above my bed her face was young.
What is death like, she asks.


Devices:
*Allusion - reference to a person, event, place, work of art, etc.
*Caesura - a natural pause or break

The pantoum style of this, repeating itself over and over, makes it seem as though it's a reoccuring memory in the poet's mind about her mother. "My mother comes in a dream" is said twice, suggesting that this dream may come often, and is so familiar because it's been repeated so many times. The experience of losing her mother is something that is unforgettable and seems to play over and over in her mind.

Pantoum 1

Desert Dawning
Anne Johnson

The desert awakes with a whispered sigh.                
A jackrabbit scurries through the brush                    
while far above a raven cries.                                   
Dawn breaks from a frozen hush.                             

A jackrabbit scurries through the brush                    
bent on finding food to eat.                                       
Dawn breaks from a frozen hush,
the cold chill of the night retreats.

Bent on finding food to eat,
a roadrunner darts across the sand.
The cold chill of the night retreats
as fiery warmth fills the land.

A roadrunner darts across the sand
in the shadow of a towering saguaro.
As fiery warmth fills the land
the cactus wren peers at a beetle below.

In the shadow of a towering saguaro
a bevy of quail march by in a line.
The cactus wren peers at a beetle below.
On a sunny rock the lizard reclines.

A bevy of quail march by in a line
while far above a raven cries.
On a sunny rock the lizard reclines.
The desert awakes with a whispered sigh.


This poem shows a great example of the distinct rhyme and repetition scheme of a pantoum. Their stanzas are made up of four lines, with an ABAB rhyme scheme:
Line 1: A
Line 2: B
Line 3: A
Line 4: B

Their second stanza, however, starts repeating lines from the previous stanza:
Line 5: B (same as line 2)
Line 6: A
Line 7: B (same as line 4)
Line 8: A

This process continues throughout the poem.

Villanelle Poem 2

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night,
 
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
 
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night,
 
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
 
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


This poem is a good example of a typical villanelle poem because it shows how the repetition and rhyme scheme of villanelles work.

Villanelle Poem 1 - Comment!

My Mother’s Pillow

by Cecilia Woloch

My mother sleeps with the Bible open on her pillow;

she reads herself to sleep and wakens startled.

She listens for her heart: each breath is shallow.

 

For years her hands were quick with thread and needle.

She used to sew all night when we were little;

now she sleeps with the Bible on her pillow

 

and believes that Jesus understands her sorrow:

her children grown, their father frail and brittle;

she stitches in her heart, her breathing shallow.

 

Once she even slept fast, rushed tomorrow,

mornings full of sunlight, sons and daughters.

Now she sleeps alone with the Bible on her pillow

 

and wakes alone and feels the house is hollow,

though my father in his blue room stirs and mutters;

she listens to him breathe: each breath is shallow.

 

I flutter down the darkened hallway, shadow

between their dreams, my mother and my father,

asleep in rooms I pass, my breathing shallow.

I leave the Bible open on her pillow.

 

 

Devices:

*enjambment - continuation of a sentence from one line to the next.

*cacophany - harsh, discordant sound words.

 

The villanelle poems use two repeating phrases at the end of alternating stanzas (ex. Bible under her pillow, breathing shallow), and uses both of these lines at the end of the poem in the last two lines.

The imagery is bleak and dark: "darkened hallway", "wakes alone and feels the house is hollow", showing how the mother has grown and lost much of her liveliness and happiness. As she has gotten older, she has slowed down, finding her life much less rewarding. Her children are old and gone now, her husband has grown old and the only thing that she still feels she has that has not changed is the Bible; reading it is the only thing that can get her to sleep every night after everything has changed. Aside from the Bible, which is the only thing she still relates to, she feels completely alone.