Here, we will have this the simplest way.
There are many ways (devices) for one to construct poetry.
Rhyme is the device usually used in the construction of traditional poetry.
Why is this so?
Because traditional poetry begun as an oral tradition i.e. it passed from person to person by word of mouth. It’s not written down, unlike how we could have it now. And the thing with words of mouth is, it could be easily forgotten. Because not everybody has the same memory capacity.
So how could one ensure that the thing passed orally could be passed without significant (or at least the minimum) loss of form; nothing reduced, nothing added, nothing transformed?
The easiest and proven to be an adequate trick is by making the thing catchy, easy to remember, capturing the listeners or at least will leave an imprint on their mind on the vague structure of it. And this, dear readers, is done by employing what we now classify as literary devices.
Rhyme is one of it, which has been a must for a pantun. Other devices like alliteration, assonance, syllables matching, shall be covered later.
For now, let’s focus on rhyme.
As mentioned in our introductory post What to Know About Pantun?, rhyme between the upper half of the stanza and the lower half is crucial in pantun characteristics. Without having this, one may not be able to take it to be a pantun.
The example given below exemplifies this. Observe how each line in the upper half must have an end-rhyme with another line in the upper half, in the right ordering.
Notice how all the pantun above, regardless of how many kerat it has, must have this structure.
If it is pantun 2 kerat, the rhyme will be aa
If it is pantun 4 kerat, the rhyme will be abab
If it is pantun 6 kerat, the rhyme will be abcabc
If the pantun 2 kerat is to be
Well, it makes sense. The message intended for us makes sense, but 'duri' does not rhyme with 'percaya'. The rhyme scheme is ab. Therefore, it breaks the rule that pantun 2 kerat must have rhyme scheme aa.
The basic thing always taught for those just introduced to the world of pantun, especially in the practice of constructing one is that this end-rhyme must be observed, and achieved.
Therefore, knowledge on Malay diction, a good thesaurus or a rhyme dictionary perhaps is a good companion to beginners. As long as you can manage to get the pantun rhyme scheme correct, that’s pantun. (This of course only applicable if each line in the rangkap makes sense. Else, anyone can simply make gibberish, semantically meaningless sentence, and call it pantun)
Also to be noted is that this end-rhyme concerned with the pronunciation, not how it’s written. When we say a rhymes with b, we mean that the way one say a will be the same with how one says b. Specifically, at least the combination of the vowel sound and the consonant that follows this vowel, in the last syllable of the last words must have the same sound.
Observe in the following example how the rhyme works.
The first one is a happy accident, the way the last syllable of each word sounds is the same, and the same goes to way these syllables are written. 'ikan duri' ends with 'ri', producing 'ri' sound, and 'mencuri' also ends with 'ri', producing 'ri' sound.
But be careful not to take this for granted. The same spelling won’t necessarily be producing the same sound.
And the same goes with sound; the same sound may have different spellings. Case in point, the word ‘kolek’ and ‘mudik’. The last syllable of 'kolek', -lek spelled with e followed by k. Whereas the last syllable of ‘mudik’ is spelled with i followed by k. But the sound produced (most of the time) will still be the same ék. Therefore, they rhyme.
There are levels of "rhymeness". Which mean to what degree must the words rhyme. The minimum and best requirement is to have the sound of last syllable’s vowel and the consonant that follows it to rhyme. Bapak panjang statement. Examples are ‘laut’ and ‘sebut’.
If you gigih, then you might want to make sure the whole final syllable to rhyme. This means to have the sound of the last syllable, the consonant that opens it, the vowel and the consonant that closes it to be the same. Example, 'ikan duri' and 'mencuri'.
Significance of “Siakap Senohong Gelama Ikan duri”
Why this pembayang is selected as the title?
Because this pantun is the pantun wajib. Everyone who ever learns or encounter pantun in their life will know this pantun.
Because the rhyme level in this pantun is tahap dewa.
It is enough for a pantun to have the final words rhyme according to the rhyme scheme based on how many kerat the pantun have. But, one does not simply stop there.
Remember that oral tradition of pantun requires the construction to be as catchy as possible. Using rhyme will help; pantun requires the construction to have the final rhymes. But, again, one does not stop there. The more rhyme you can squeeze in, the better. Where to put it? Well, along the pembayang and maksud of course. Observe the pantun below.
This is what makes the construction genius, and catchy. And one does not simply forget this pantun once encounter it. It can be observed that each line of the pantun can be divided to 4 parts, each with its own rhyme. 'siakap' rhymes with 'cakap', 'senohong' rhymes with 'bohong' and so on as highlighted out above.
Also to be noted, the way each part in the pembayang rhyme with its counterpart in the meaning is not the minimum level of rhyme conventional in pantun tradition i.e. up to the final syllable’s vowel sound. The rhyme covers up to the second last syllable’s vowel sound.
And thus a good pantun to start the discussion on rhyme, because
It’s the simplest pantun one could (should) have encountered.
Level of rhyme dia macam tak agak-agak.
We will have to discuss on this “degree of rhymeness” in another post (kalau saya gigih). But to have it systematically described and discuss, we will prepare for you a note on the structure of Malay words, and why is it important to know this to really understand how rhyme works?
As for now, we will stop here. And just for recap,
Pantun requires the last word’s final syllable of a pembayang to rhyme with the last word’s final syllable of its counterpart in the maksud.
The rhyme scheme for pantun 2 kerat is aa, pantun 4 kerat is abab, and pantun 6 kerat is abcabc.
End-rhyme is made the compulsory elements in the structure of pantun because the pantun must be capturing and easily memorized.
There are other literary devices other than rhyme that could be used to make things (poetic form) more capturing e.g. alliteration, assonance. But we’re not discussing it now here.
There are different levels of rhyme, which we also not discussing in depth here.
Jangan suka cakap bohong, nanti jadi pencuri.
Hope this will be useful, and thank you for spending your time here. Be sure to follow us Facebook and Instagram. We will get you updated on our latest posting there.