#1 (A Syllabic Pantoum)

So, most of the pantoums that we have studied in class have a decent amount of syllables per line, usually considered an average count when compared with long lines that extend past the length of a standard page and those short lines that only have a couple syllables. I chose to accept my mission of writing a pantoum with only a few syllables in the syllable count. Keeping the pantoum a standard syllable count, especially a short one, proved to be quite difficult. This was mostly because the flexibilty of the lines was highly restricted. When I had to repeat a line, it was very difficult to change it in any way in order for the line to make sense in comparison with the other lines of that stanza. Also, the subject of the poem had to be quite simplistic, and very few dramatic turns could be initiated. I don't think that I would ever choose to write a syllabic panoum again, but this was an interesting experiment.

Sylabbic Pantoum

The red sky
bleeds tonight.
Under the ground,
the mole hides.

Bleed tonight-
remember
the mole hides
until dawn.

Remember
the black sky,
until dawn
rises up.

The black sky
dies but it
rises up
every day.

And it dies
under the ground
every day:
the red sky.