Punk Pantoum

Who is the speaker? Define and describe the speaker and his/her voice. What does the speaker say? Who is the audience? Are other characters involved?

Blake Fletcher

AP English

Punk Pantoum

       The speaker in Punk Pantoum is a woman who is very much into the philosophy of punk music. Punk music is rather dark and gloomy but at the same time there are these messages of like eternal love. She seems to want to kill her boyfriend and herself but still being together. Her voice is dark but at the same time she is telling him how much she loved him the first time she met him.

         The punk culture is kind of crazy. In the Punk Pantoum there is this idea of romance in killing, and committing suicide. This dark yet beautiful thought of eternal love seems to be the major idea that is trying to be portrayed in this poem. When the speaker says “I knew I loved you then, with your blistered face and tracks.” is a prime example of the sick and twisted way of expressing love. Instead of saying I realized then in your darkest moment even when your face was all messed up from being burnt that I loved you; she says that she loved him with his blistered face. That is not the most artistic way of describing your love for someone. The quote also shows a little bit of light on the punk life style. Track is another word for song on an album so maybe the person played music and maybe he got her into the punk life style.

         The dark and gloomy punk lifestyle is just as much speaking of eternal love in this Pantoum as it is sick and demented. Yes, the speaker is talking about slitting her boyfriend and her throats, but she also ends with saying that she loves him in line 23. This could be a reference to even though she wants to kill him, maybe she wants to spend all of eternity with him and this is her way of expressing that.