Strategy Response 1, Week 10

Poem: Saloon Pantoum

Strategy: Line one of the previous stanza becomes/is reflected as line two in the following stanza.


What particularly stood out to me in the piece “Saloon Pantoum” was the way that the second line of one stanza was reflected or repeated in the first line of the second stanza. This trend consists of an identical repetition for stanzas 1-3. But then, the second line of stanza three is referenced as an idea in stanza four, and the same is true for stanzas four and five. In other words, the verse is not an identical repetition, but simply a paraphrased or reflection of the notion presented in the second line of the previous stanza. This technique connects the stanzas in a style or format that is rather loosely restricted. The exact repetition of one line is not consistent throughout the entire poem, but only the first three stanzas, and then stanzas four and five. However, the mere reflection of one line within the line of a following stanza serves to give the reader a subtle reminder of exactly how intricately the poem is threaded. The poem begins with the remnants of classic jokes that are told, and the joke remains present through the strategy of connecting the joke relate lines through the second and first lines of the stanzas in the poem:

“Guy walks into a bar with a duck down his pants,” becomes the start of stanza two;
“A priest, a rabbi, and a minister,” becomes the start of stanza three;
“Wherever two or more are gathered in a joke,” becomes the start of stanza four;
"There is love. And just as He’d said, we know it [reflecting wherever two or more are gathered in a joke],” becomes the start of stanza five.
And stanza six starts with a bleak image that seems almost like a sick joke with the mention of 'dead babies, "By its blonde hair and dead babies."

I also love how, though the entire thought is not repeated in the last stanza, Fagan is also still able to include the classic joke of something that is "Black, White, and re(a)d" all over in stanza five.

I love how Fagan juxtaposes the idea of "jokes " with the notion of "religion," and how the two themes thread in and out of each other to form the basic skeleton of the poem as a whole. I think the way the repeats lines helps to strengthen this particular threading method in the piece.