A rose is a rose, but when is a poem a poem?
Every once in a while, in our posts, we say (like Monty Python), “And now for something completely different!” This post is one of those that match
Shape Poems? Heard of them? Read some? Don’t know if you have ever encountered one? Don’t have a clue what they are? Ready? Whether or not you are familiar with shape poetry, we’re pretty sure you will learn a thing or three from this post and the 22 January follow-on.
What Is a Shape Poem?
A shape poem, also known as a concrete poem and a calligram*, is an arrangement of words on a page into shapes or patterns that reveal an image that , that almost always partner with nonlinear text.
These visual poems are an artistic blend of the literary and the visual arts. Readers experience a shape poem via its words, typography, and the visual representation of the poem’s subject. In this type of visual poetry, the meaning of the poem is enhanced by the shape of the poem itself. Scan down until you see the first shape poem consisting of words and shapes placed irregularly on the page rather than in the usual lines of text.
Concrete Poems, or shape poems are "as much pieces of visual art made with words as they are poems."(www.poets.org) Concrete poems use the words of a poem to create the shape of an object represented by the poem. There are 2 types of these concrete or shape poems - Outline and Drawing.
A shape poem has a few that are not so easy to create. The shape of a shape poem adds to the meaning of the poem. To write a shape poem, write down all the words that come to mind about the chosen topic or shape. The poem does not have to rhyme, but making sure the poem works with the chosen shape is very important.
The Origins of Shape Poems
Because music and lyrics preceded literacy, the earliest shape poems were quite often created in the spoken or sung word accompanied by musical instrument(s).
Ancient letter arrangements: Shape poems were already a popular literary form in Ancient Greece as early as 2 BC. Scribes would often use the shape of the text itself to bring more meaning into these types of poems.
Early pattern poetry in the early twentieth century: The American poet E. E. Cummings and the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire wrote pattern poems in the first half of the twentieth century, spacing out and styling words on the page for poetic expression. These poets rose to prominence before the concrete poetry movement formally entered the mainstream.
Mid-twentieth century: While the art form has a long history, concrete poetry has only been a widely shared term since the mid-twentieth century. Poetry as a form was evolving; Dada artists explored sound poetry, introducing new, aural ways to experience poems, primarily via performances that blended music and text.
Development as a visual art form: In 1950s Brazil, writers affiliated with the São Paulo magazine Noigandres experimented with visualizing words on a page. Members of the Noigandres group—including Brazilian writers Augusto de Campos, Décio Pignatari, and Haroldo de Campos—showed their work at an art exhibit. These avant-garde artists carved a new path, blazing a trail for an art movement that was also a literary movement.
Anthology: This artistic medium flourished throughout the twentieth century. In 1968, Mary Ellen Solt published Concrete Poetry: A World View, a definitive collection of the concrete poetry movement.
Check out the shape poems below. Writing such pieces can enhance the poet’s creativity and generativity. Remember that in shape/visual poetry, the meaning of the poem is enhanced by the shape of the poem itself, rather than the actual words used. If you are squinting at these poems, we can direct you to helpful tools like magnifying glasses.
1. “40 Love”: This concrete poem by Roger McGough is a narrative about a couple playing tennis. The text is divided down the middle, representing the net that separates them while they play, and will also be present when they’re home.
2.
12. “Silencio”: Eugen Gomringer’s “Silencio” shows the title word printed fourteen times to form a box with a hole in the middle, in which another instance of “silencio” would fit. In that hole, the Bavarian-born German poet seems to be showing a visual form of silence.
More TRADITIONAL but still poetic rule-breakers
by Juliana Huxtable
KEY AND STRING THEORETICALLY RIPPLING IN THE WAKE
RATTLES SURFACE OF DRYING BONES
EXCAVATED FROM A LAKE
A BLOW AGAINST THE BONES NOW
STRIKES THEM DOWN INTO THEIR MARROW
DUST FLOATS IN CHAOS TRACING
WING TRACKS OF SPARROW
SUSPENDING CRIMSON IN THE PEARLESCENT WHITES
OF FRESHLY DRIED SIGHT
KICKS IRIS
WITH THE ILLUSION
OF LIGHT IN MEMORY
STRING STRIKES WAGE WAR
AGAINST THE KICKS OF AN ANCHOR ONCE ASHORE
NOW NO MORE
REVIVAL ON THE OCEAN’S FLOOR
NOW NO MORE
REVIVAL ON THE BEDROOM DOOR
SUCK THE CRIMSON FROM THE BITS AND
PRAY FOR MORE
CRUSH THE BITS IN A STAMPING FIT
ON A REVIVAL FLOOR
A SEXED BEING SPLITS ON DEW OF THE WAVE PROJECTION
NOW MORE, DIVIED INTO THE POSSIBILITIES THAT LIE THEREIN
SHE NOW THEE, ASTRAL BEAM OUT IN A PUNCH FROM THE GUT
DISEMBOWELING THE DUB OF WHAT LIED IN THE SUB
HIS HIGH STRUNG WIRE SHRIEKS AT ITS SCRAPING
THOUGH THREADBARE, STILL INEFFABLE.
BREAKS IN ITS GAPING
by Jos Charles
I sat in windows
doorways, closets
prostrate upon the
bed, or walking for
hours, naming the flow
ers I could. When misery
came and went in 1995, mira
culously love took his place. Against
my better judgment, I, occasionally, in
vited misery back in. He’d look at me brilliantly like
one staring at the sun and recline on his golden door.
He’d leave inevitably for another, another more
but things were evident. I liked how he’d watch
me pile wood on the floor.
by Matthew Minicucci
The worst part of it is that I’ve forgotten your face. Or the idea that each tide was a slender finger pulling at these knots, loose end then left to work on another day. Lost at sea, love is a logogram: less than, fewer still, a word made nothing more than cauter-mark on starboard hard, port I left all those years ago. Sometimes, I dream of my own (sorry, our own) great-rooted bed, shaped from something still alive. Eurycleia means “broad fame” and that’s a sandy-pit, if you ask me. It’s an island beautiful as a scarred oxen’s back, sowed with lash and eyes. I saw something of you the other day in this glass of magic, vase filled with smoke’s children. There’s that dress you wore, I said to no one in particular. There’s that blue that never bled to red wine, dark in its never-nocked-arrow waves. And suddenly you’re the moon, again, lost in reflection’s sea. I follow the light to nowhere as I wander through the sipped sleeve. Because. Because you walked the stairs that night before I left, after we heard the rain spill like grain from a split sack. You walked in front of me, just above the cochineal stars, bright bald ember, fashioned still spear. I think of nothing else but you. It’s true. It’s the worst part of forgetting, all this remembering.
Exploration 1: If this is your first exposure to shape poems, what do you think? If you’ve seen them before, what do you think?
Exploration 2: Which type of shape poem do you prefer: calligram or the “more traditional”?
Exploration 3: Care to try your hand (and pen or keyboard) at a shape poem? Tune in to our post on 22 January 24!
*a word or piece of text in which the design and layout of the letters creates a visual image related to the meaning of the words themselves.
ReplyDeleteIf Google Comments would support it--
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In the
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Gilding
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You are anticipating my next post. Stay tuned.
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