Development Concrete poetry

george herbert s easter wings (1633), printed sideways on facing pages lines call mind angels flying outstretched wings

early religious examples of shaped poems in english include easter wings , altar in george herbert’s temple (1633) , robert herrick’s cross tree here (in shape of cross) noble numbers (1647). alternative religious precursor micrography, technique creating visual images hebrew-speaking artists create pictures using tiny arrangements of biblical texts organized on paper in images illustrate text used. noted in entry, micrography allows creation of images of natural objects observant jews without directly breaking prohibition of creating graven images might interpreted idolatry. technique used both religious , secular artists , similar use of arabic texts in islamic calligraphy.

european secular examples include poems in shape of wine flagons rabelais , charles-françois panard, , slovene france prešeren s toast (zdravljica, 1844) stanzas in shape of wine-glasses. approach taken @ start of 20th century guillaume apollinaire in inventive calligrammes, poems in, among others, shape of necktie, fountain , raindrops running down window.

in era there typographical experiments members of avant-garde movements such futurism, dada , surrealism in lay-out moved auxiliary expression of meaning artistic primacy. significance of sound poetry in marinetti’s zang tumb tumb (1912) expressed through pictorial means. in germany raoul hausmann claimed typographic style of phonemes allowed reader recognise sound intended. in russia futurist poet vasily kamensky went far term typography of tango cows, published in 1914, ferro-concrete poems (zhelezobetonnye poemy), long before name became current elsewhere.

a further move away overt meaning occurred ‘poems’ simplified simple arrangement of letters of alphabet. louis aragon, example, exhibited sequence z , titled suicide (1926), while kurt schwitters’ za (elementary) has alphabet in reverse, , catalan writer josep maria junoy (1885-1955) placed letters z , @ top , bottom of page under title ars poetica .