eBobb :: poet, balladeer, philosopher

For examples of more esoteric types of verse - like the douzet, the rondel and the villanelle - stay tuned to eBobb's Free Generic Samples Page.

Lest any of you citizens might chance to be laboring under the false impression that all poetry is highbrow English stuff (with a little highbrow French stuff thrown in), today's offering comes to you from Malaysia via the tall ships. The pantoum is a variation on the old sea chanty, which should make it obvious that not all poets have to hold PhDs . . . for which eBobb is eternally grateful. Actually, those old sailors were pretty artsy types, as it turns out. They whiled away their time at sea, when not making up chanties and yo-ho-hoing with their bottles of rum, by embroidering really nifty pictures of their ships with waves and landscapes and everything. I mean, this was some fancy needlework. Anyway, back to the pantoum. The deal with this little ditty is that it can go on as long as your want it to (handy when you were sailing the North Sea during those all-day nights), but it requires a bit of military discipline in that every second and fourth line of each four line stanza must become the first and third line of the subsequent stanza, plus the very first line of the poem must also be the very last line. Devious people, those sailors.

Sky Creature

Margaret thought that she could fly.
She watched the eagle and she knew
She was a creature of the sky;
The thought possessed her, deep and true.

She watched the eagle and she knew
Her home was far beyond the clouds;
The thought possessed her, deep and true,
As she wandered lost among the crowds.

Her home was far beyond the clouds
Though her mother, fearful, bid her stay
As she wandered lost among the crowds -
And Margaret, sighing, did obey.

Though her mother, fearful, bid her stay,
Though her father also wished her here
And Margaret, sighing, did obey,
To Margaret, still, the truth was clear.

Though her father also wished her here,
Her dreams were filled with eagles' flight;
To Margaret, still, the truth was clear,
So Margaret flew in dark of night.

Her dreams were filled with eagles'flight;
A little death came with each day -
So Margaret flew in dark of night;
At dawn she wept and pined away.

A little death came with each day;
Her promise grown too hard to keep,
At dawn she wept and pined away,
Then fled as her parents lay asleep.

Her promise grown to hard to keep,
Duty's tether come all undone,
She fled as her parents lay asleep:
The call to flight had finally won.

Duty's tether come all undone,
Margaret fled to a lofty peak -
The call to flight had finally won:
Her heart's true home she'd come to seek.

Margaret fled to a lofty peak,
Then, joyous, leapt from that mountain high.
Her heart's true home she'd come to seek.
Margaret thought that she could fly.