Hello Friends,
Was Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" inspired by A.E. Stallings's "With no ring on her finger / You cannot hope to hold her" — which appeared in the April 2004 issue of Poetry Magazine? We may never know. But what I can tell you is that this poetic form — where the 2nd and 4th line of one stanza become the 1st and 3rd line of the next stanza — is called a pantoum.
I hope you enjoy.
Ellen
Sleep, she will not linger:
She turns her moon-cold shoulder.
With no ring on her finger,
You cannot hope to hold her.
She turns her moon-cold shoulder
And tosses off the cover.
You cannot hope to hold her:
She has another lover.
She tosses off the cover
And lays the darkness bare.
She has another lover.
Her heart is otherwhere.
She lays the darkness bare.
You slowly realize
Her heart is otherwhere.
There's distance in her eyes.
You slowly realize
That she will never linger,
With distance in her eyes
And no ring on her finger.
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