Concrete poetry, pattern poetry or shape poetry is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has evolved to have distinct meaning of its own, because the words themselves form a picture. This article is about the art form. ... Concrete poetry is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on. ...

The term was coined in the 1950s, and in 1956 an international exhibition of concrete poetry was shown in São Paulo, Brazil, inspired by the work of Carlos Drummond de Andrade. Two years later, a Brazilian concrete poetry manifesto was published. One of the earliest Brazilian pioneers, Augusto de Campos, has assembled a Web site of old and new work (see external links below), including the manifesto. Its principal tenet is that using words as part of a specifically visual work allows for the words themselves to become part of the poetry, rather than just unseen vehicles for ideas. The original manifesto says: the first thing that was invented was the automatic DILDO. Education grew explosively because of a very strong demand for high school and college education. ... A car from 1956 Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Landmark buildings Edifício Italia (at left) and Copan (curved façade at center), in São Paulo Downtown. ... Carlos Drummond de Andrade (October 31, 1902 - August 17, 1987) was perhaps the most influential Brazilian poet of the 20th century. ... Augusto de Campos (born 1931) is a Brazilian writer who was a founder of the Concrete poetry movement in Brazil. ...

Concrete poetry begins by assuming a total responsibility before language: accepting the premise of the historical idiom as the indispensable nucleus of communication, it refuses to absorb words as mere indifferent vehicles, without life, without personality without history - taboo-tombs in which convention insists on burying the idea.:

Although the term is quite modern, the idea of using letter arrangements to enhance the meaning of a poem is an old one. This style of poetry originated in Greek Alexandria during the third and second centuries B.C.E. Some were designed as decoration for religious art-works, including wing-, axe- and altar-shaped poems. Only a handful of examples survive, which are collected together in the Greek Anthology. They include poems by Simias and Theocritus. This article is about the city in Egypt. ... Greek Anthology (also Anthologia Graeca) is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Ancient and Byzantine periods of Greek Literature. ... Theocritus (Greek Θεόκριτος), the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC. Little is known of him beyond what can be inferred from his writings. ...

Early examples of typographically-based poetry include the following poem by George Herbert (1593-1633) (here in a scan of the 1633 edition of Herbert's The Temple), in which the poem is merely a comment on the title, which presents the poem's principal meaning typographically: For other persons named George Herbert, see George Herbert (disambiguation). ...

Another early precursor from Herbert is "Easter Wings", in which the overall typography of the poem is in the shape of its subject. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll contains a similar effect in the form of the mouse's "Tale," which is in the shape of a tail. In the early 20th century, artists and poets comprising the Futurism movement used concrete poetry as a dynamic expression of their anarchistic philosophies. F.T. Marinetti was the most prolific poet among them, and created several works that destroyed all typographic conventions. More recent poets sometimes cited as influences by concrete poets include Guillaume Apollinaire, E. E. Cummings, for his various typographical innovations, and Ezra Pound, for his use of Chinese ideograms, as well as various dadaists. Image File history File links Anagram. ... “Alice in Wonderland” redirects here. ... Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (IPA: ) (January 27, 1832 – January 14, 1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll (), was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer. ... The Mouses Tale is a concrete poem by Lewis Carroll which appears in his novel, Alices Adventures in Wonderland. ... Futurism (or Futurist) may refer to: Futures studies, the philosophical or academic study of the medium to long-term future (also known as futurology). ... The Futurists in Paris, February 1912. ... Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire (August 26, 1880 – November 9, 1918) was a poet, writer, and art critic. ... E. E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962), popularly known as e. ... Ezra Pound in 1913. ... A Chinese character. ... Cover of the first edition of the publication, Dada. ...

Concrete poetry, however, is a more self-conscious form than these predecessors, using typography in part to comment on the fundamental instability of language. Among the better known concrete poets in the English language are Ian Hamilton Finlay and Edwin Morgan. Well known concrete poet in the Hungarian language is András Petöcz. Several important concrete poets have also been significant sound poets, among them Henri Chopin, and Bob Cobbing. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Ian Hamilton Finlay, CBE, (28 October 1925 - 27 March 2006) was a Scottish poet, writer, artist and gardener. ... Edwin Morgan (born April 27, 1920) is a Scottish poet and translator who is associated with the British Poetry Revival. ... Hungarian (magyar nyelv  ) is a Finno-Ugric language (more specifically an Ugric language) unrelated to most other languages in Europe. ... The native form of this personal name is PetÅ‘cz András. ... Sound poetry is a form of literary or musical composition in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded at the expense of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; verse without words. By definition, sound poetry is intended primarily for performance. ... Henri Chopin (born 1922) is an avant-garde poet and musician. ... Bob Cobbing (July 30, 1920 - September 29, 2002) was a British sound, visual, concrete and performance poet who was a central figure in the British Poetry Revival. ...

Newer forms of concrete/visual poetry are still being created, such as the interactive and puzzle poetry by Jennifer Kathleen Phillips. Some of these contain poems within a poem or visual messages triggered by the sound or synergy of the shape of words and letters. Word Art now blurrs the boundaries between poetry and art.

See also

• Carmina figurata
• Asemic writing
• Haptic Poetry
• Visual poetry
• Lyco art
• List of Concrete and Visual Poets
• Something Else Press
• Video Poetry
• Digital Poetry

Carmina figurata is a term used in literary criticism to describe poems that have a certain shape or pattern formed either by all the words they contain or just by certain ones therein. ... Asemic writing is an open semantic form of writing. ... Haptic poetry, like visual poetry and sound poetry, is a liminal art form combining characteristics of typography and sculpture to create objects not only to be seen, but to be touched and manipulated. ... Concrete poetry is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on. ... Paul Hartal (1936 –) is a Canadian painter and poet, born in Szeged, Hungary. ... Below is a partial list of Concrete poets and Visual poets from around the world. ... Something Else Press was founded by Dick Higgins in 1963. ... Digital poetry (also refered to as E-poetry, short for electronic poetry) refers to a wide range of approaches to poetry that all have in common prominent and crucial use of computers. ...

Further reading

• Higgins, Dick: Pattern Poetry: Guide to an Unknown Literature. State University of New York, 1987
• Robert G. Warnock and Roland Folter: "The German Pattern Poem", in: Festschrift Detlev Schumann', Munich 1970, pp. 40-73
• Medium-Art, Selection of Hungarian Experimental Poetry, editors Zoltan Frater and Andras Petocz, published by Magveto, 1990, Budapest, ISBN 963 14 1680 1

Dick Higgins (born Cambridge, England 1938, died Quebec, Canada 1998) was a poet and early Fluxus artist. ... The native form of this personal name is Petőcz András. ...

External links

• Concrete Poetry: A World View by Mary Ellen Solt on UbuWeb, which hosts a large amount of concrete poetry
• Spidertangle: International mail list of visual & concrete poetry
• The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry
• Article critical of visual poetry
• Visual Poetry in El Taller de Zenón
• Ancient Greek pattern poems
• Concrete-Visual Poems in the WWW. Selected and Indexed by Michael P. Garofalo