1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pantun

​PANTUN (Pantoum), a form of verse of Malay origin. Animitation of the form has been adopted in French and also inEnglish verse, where it is known as “pantoum.” The Malaypantun is a quatrain, the first and third and the second and fourthlines of which rhyme. The peculiarity of the verse-form residesin the fact that the first two lines have as a rule no actualconnexion, in so far as meaning is concerned, with the two last,or with one another, and have for their raison d’être a meansof supplying rhymes for the concluding lines. For instance:—

Here, it will be seen, the first two lines have no meaning,though according to the Malayan mind, on occasion, these “rhyme-making” lines are held to contain some obscure,symbolical reference to those which follow them. The Malayis not exacting with regard to the correctness of his rhymes,and to his ear rimba and riba rhyme as exactly as pūlch andbūdeh. It should also be noted that in the above example, as isnot infrequently the case with the Malay pantun, there is asimilar attempt at rhyme between the initial words of the linesas well as between the word with which they conclude, senūdohand sūnggoh, benang and jāngan, and kārap and hārap all rhymingto the Malayan ear. There are large numbers of well-knownpantun with which practically all Malays are acquainted, muchas the commoner proverbs are familiar to us all, and it is not aninfrequent practice in conversation for the first line of a pantun—viz.:one of the two lines to which no real meaning attaches—tobe quoted alone, the audience being supposed to possess thenecessary knowledge to fit on the remaining lines for himself andthus to discover the significance of the allusion. Among culturedMalays, more especially those living in the neighbourhood of the.raja’s court, new pantun are constantly being composed, many ofthem being of a highly topical character, and these improvisationsare quoted from man to man until they become current likethe old, well-known verses, though within a far more restrictedarea. Often too, the pantun is used in love-making, but they arethen usually composed for the exclusive use of the author and forthe delectation of his lady-loves, and do not find their way intothe public stock of verses. “Capping” pantun is also a notuncommon pastime, and many Malays will continue such contestsfor hours without once repeating the same verse, and oftenimprovising quatrains when their stock threatens to becomeexhausted. When this game is played by skilled versifiers,the pantun last quoted, and very frequently the second linethereof, is used as the tag on to which to hang the succeedingverse.

The “pantoum” as a form of verse was introduced into Frenchby Victor Hugo in Les Orientales (1820). It was also practisedby Théodore de Banville and Leconte de Lisle. Austin Dobson’sIn Town is an example of its use, in a lighter manner, inEnglish. In the French and English imitation the verse form isin four-line stanzas, the second and fourth line of each verseforming the first and third of the next, and so on to the laststanza, where the first and third line of the first stanza formthe second and fourth line.  (H. Cl.)