The William Shakespeare of Thailand, Sunthorn Phu produced several renowned works that continue to be frequently quoted in contemporary culture. Sunthorn Phu, whose full court title was Phra Sunthorn Voharn , was born in In , he entered royal service during the reign of King Rama II, a monarch whose era became known as a golden time for Thai poetry and literature.
It was said that when King Rama II got stuck while writing a verse for the Ramayana epic, none of his other courtiers were able to help him continue writing to his satisfaction.
Sunthorn Phu, however, was able to continue writing the poem, thus quickly becoming favored by the king.
Even later in life when Sunthorn Phu was jailed after a fight, he was pardoned by King Rama II when his poetic services were once again needed. Much of classical Thai poetry has remained untranslated with the original poetic structures intact.
This piece will guide you through the structure of the khlon paed , the poetic form most favored by Sunthorn Phu, along with some of his most famous poems. Each stanza contains four such lines, all of which are connected through a rhyming scheme as seen below. Each stanza is also connected to another stanza with another rhyme in purple. Each circle represents a syllable. In the khlon paed , the standard structure is for there to be two key rhymes: the first syllable of the first line with the third syllable of the second line, and then the final syllable of the second line with the last syllable of the third line and the third syllable of the fourth line.
