Pantoums are poems that have:

1. Stanzas that are 4 lines long

2. An unspecified length–but the pantoum must begin and end with the same line

3. “The second and fourth lines of the first quatrain become the first and third lines of the next, and so on with succeeding quatrains.”

4.  Rhyme patter of each quatrain is abab

5. Final quatrain changes the abab pattern

6.  “In the final quatrain the unrepeated first and thrid lines are used in reverse as second and fourth lines.”

Strand and Boland Page 43