Punk Pantoum

The Punk movement originated in the 1960’s however didn’t become popular until the 1970’s. This movement involved people, basically rebelling and trying to stick it to “the man.” In this poem we are faced with a speaker who is asking his lover to commit suicide with him. Punks can come from any and all walks of life and economic classes. Compared to some alternative cultures, punk is generally associated with treating all genders equally.

In Punk Pantoum a man asks his lover to commit suicide with him. By him asking that of her it makes it seem like he has the power and that he is in control, however it is actually him trying to help them escape from “the man.” If you are “the punk,” then your whole life is about fighting the man,” and if you kill yourself to escape him then you are really sticking it to him. Killing yourself was the only real way you could escape him. Not that it matters but he comes from a rich neighborhood, however he thinks of the people that live on former “Gibson Street,” now known as Eutaw Place are "rats, a severed fetlock, muscle, bone and hooves".

The poem begins and ends in two very different moods or tones. The first line is Tonight I'll walk the razor along your throat and the last is Tonight, dragging the white-hot razor across our throats and back . . .the switch from walk to dragging indicates change and movement. And at the beginning it says throat which means that he is for sure going to kill himself and he is wanting her to kill herself too. And then the poem ends in throats which means she has decided to kill herself too, so she can also escape “the man” and be with her lover forever.