Poetic Form
Pantoum
From Malay pantun. Introduced to European literature by Victor Hugo and Ernest Fouinet (1829); adopted by Baudelaire and later by English-language poets seeking obsessive repetition.
Definition
A form of interlocking quatrains in which lines 2 and 4 of each stanza become lines 1 and 3 of the next, until the final stanza reverses the opening lines.
Example
Carolyn Kizer's 'Parent's Pantoum' and Marilyn Hacker's work exemplify the form in English.