Concrete Poetry, also known as shape poetry, combines text and visual design to convey meaning. Dating back to the 2nd century BCE with Greek examples, it emphasizes how words are arranged on the page rather than traditional poetic elements like rhyme or meter. The form uses shapes or patterns that reflect the subject, creating an immersive experience that is often appealing to young readers.
It is often distinguished from Visual Poetry, which employs other visual mediums of art and media, while Concrete Poetry relies solely on typographical innovation or pattern and arrangement of letters strategically positioned on the page in a certain way to convey meaning.
In Concrete Poetry, the form and the content are enmeshed, complementing each other, while the patterns and shape convey or accentuate the intangible emotions and feelings. Modernist experimental poems like those of E.E. Cummings rely heavily on the pattern to convey the meaning, making the content dependent on the form.
‘Easter Wings’ by Herbert explores the fall and redemption of humanity, using the poem’s shape to symbolize spiritual ascent and descent.
This religious poem is inspired by classic Greek shape poetry. The arrangement of the lines, its most noticeable feature, makes the shape of wings or an hourglass, depending on the perspective and position of the stanzas on the page, conveying the speaker's emotional rise and fall while making his intangible feelings almost palpable. The width of the stanza decreases on low points like Adam's fall and the speaker's sorrows while it increases on high points like Christ's resurrection and seeking God to rise. Originally published, the poem looked like a bird's wings as it was horizontally placed on two pages, conveying the idea of flying or rising with God as he resurrects on Easter.
In ‘r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r,’ Cummings crafts a visual poem that mimics a grasshopper’s jump, pushing the boundaries of linguistic norms.
This poem is one of the best examples of concrete poetry featuring not only typographical but radical linguistic experimentation, making the meaning dependent on the visual of the patterned words on the page. The spellings of all the words are extremely distorted, with the letters scattered around in unusual spacing and placement on the page, creating the visual of the grasshopper's rapid, irregular, almost haphazard movements. The last word, 'grasshopper,' spelled correctly, introduces the subject verbally, yet it depends on the form to convey or make alive the subject's untraceable, erratic movements when one can't even correctly identify it as a grasshopper; other distorted words though nearly illegible, are in fact referring to these moves.
Lewis Carroll’s ‘The Mouse’s Tale’ offers a playful critique of the judicial system, showing the unjust nature of justice in real life.
This poem, considered a precursor to modern concrete poetry, particularly from Guillaume Apollinaire and after in the 20th century, can be viewed as a classic of the poetic form. It is part of 'Alice in Wonderland' wherein a mouse tells his tale while Alice thinks he is talking about his 'tail'; thus, this poem, shaped like a mouse's tail, emphasizes the word-play of homonyms and absurdity of language as its unique structure is its most prominent feature, prompting thoughts in its direction. Moreover, it is the poem's form that conveys what Alice is thinking in her mind, which otherwise can be challenging to convey verbally as her thoughts defy and challenge conventional linguistic logic.
‘l(a… (a leaf falls on loneliness)’ captures the essence of loneliness through the visual fall of a leaf to evoke deep emotion.
The meaning of 'l(a… (a leaf falls on loneliness)' relies on its visual presentation through typographical innovation or how the typed words are positioned on the page. Instead of using any other form of media like visual poetry, the visual element is constructed solely through the arrangement or pattern of letters aligning perfectly with the characteristics of concrete poetry. The line-by-line patterned fragmentation of words mimics the motion of a falling leaf while conveying the central concern of loneliness and ensuing emptiness. Moreover, this poem was published at the peak of the 20th-century Brazilian Concrete Poetry movement, whose manifesto was published in 1958.
In Robert Herrick’s ‘This crosstree here,’ the speaker reflects on his relationship to the cross and God while referring to Jesus’ crucifixion.
Many early examples of concrete form come from religious poetry, and 'This crosstree here,' shaped like a cross, is one of them. Without reading the poem, one can tell that it is alluding to Christianity and likely Jesus' crucifixion. The cross symbolizes Christ's sacrifice for humanity and his resurrection, the idea of redemption, and the religious devotion of his followers, which the content is indeed telling. The poem begins with 'This crosstree her / Doth Jesus bear,' while literally visualizing the tree for the readers, evoking deep emotion. Moreover, the wide, patterned spaces between the words throughout the poem seem to create the shape of Jesus' body on the cross.
Herbert’s ‘The Altar’ merges poetry and piety, shaping words into a sacred altar built from a devoted heart and tears for divine worship.
This poem belongs to a tradition of religious Concrete Poetry, particularly wherein the lines are patterned to make the shape of an altar. During the Renaissance, with the Church's adoption of emotional Baroque art, the depiction of the Altar in poetry became so widespread that a subcategory of Concrete Poetry called Altar Poetry emerged. Here, the speaker talks about building an altar from his heart as stones and tears as cement while emotionally asking God to bless his sacrifice. The Altar constructed line by line offers visual satisfaction to readers while symbolizing the speaker's effort and emotions.
George Starbuck’s ‘Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas Tree’ explores social inequality through modern Christmas celebrations.
This poem's lines are arranged and positioned on the page to create an image or shape of a potted Christmas tree. It also features some confusing phrases, like 'bonbonbonanzas,' to emphasize the extravagant decorations of Christmas that one can indeed visualize, as these fancy words in the lines that create the shape of a Christmas tree seem like an ornament while exuding the wild, chaotic, energy, and hustle-bustle of the festival, indicating modern materialistic celebration. The lines' tone, describing Mary after the birth in the pot's shape, is calm, reverent, and tender, showing grounded religious devotion.
E.E. Cummings’ ‘in Just-,’ in its playful text, depicts the impermanence of nature’s spring and life’s too, as childhood gets lost with time.
Though this poem does not make any direct shape yet, the arrangement of words in lines, division of stanzas, and wide spacing attribute a visual element to it, complementing its themes while conveying emotions. The one-word lines or stanzas bring attention to a certain idea while creating a sense of dissociation and slow progression as one reads, suggesting the changes and lost childhood. The vast spaces convey the sense of the long sound of the balloon man's whistle, while the no space between the children's names enhances the symbolism of all humanity.
E.E. Cummings’ ‘[Buffalo Bill’ s]’ explores the widely represented inevitability of death, including a civil, indifferent depiction of death.
Though the poem's meaning or any significant theme is not dependent on the form, the arrangement of the text on the page adds a visual element, complementing the poem's concerns. The scattered lines draw readers' attention to their position, creating a disrupted flow and dissociating rhythm visually, resonating with the theme of death and mortality. The one-word lines draw attention toward certain ideas, while the words with no spaces create a visual pattern that aptly conveys the smooth hunting of the Buffalo Bill.
Our Poem Guides, PDFs, Study Tools, and Articles are created by a team of qualified poetry experts to provide an unparalleled in-depth look into poetry.
