By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
When compared with the sonnet, ballad, or even the villanelle, the pantoum verse form could hardly be called ‘popular’, and examples of pantoums in English literature are not exactly plentiful. Nonetheless, there are some fine instances of the pantoum – a distinctive and strict form which has been summarised here – and below we gather together five of the best poems which utilise the pantoum form to great effect, and to various ends.