Knowra Concrete poetry Concrete poetry Concrete poetry makes the visual arrangement of words, letters, and spaces contribute directly to a poem’s meaning, rather than serving only as a vehicle for speech.
Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard : A poem by Stéphane Mallarmé that uses varied type sizes and spatial placement to shape its reading. Its 1897 page design anticipated concrete poetry’s use of space as a compositional element.
Stéphane Mallarmé : A French poet whose late work explored typography, page space, and chance. His spatial poem is a major precedent for concrete poetry’s visual treatment of the page.
Visual poetry : Poetry in which visual form contributes substantially to how a text is perceived or interpreted. Concrete poetry is a distinct, historically defined practice within this broader field.
Augusto de Campos : A Brazilian poet, translator, and co-founder of the Noigandres group. His visual poems and essays helped establish concrete poetry’s Brazilian form.
Pattern poetry : Poetry whose words form a recognizable picture or shape related to the poem’s subject. Concrete poetry need not depict an object; its visual structure can organize language more abstractly.
The Mouse's Tale : A shaped poem in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, printed in a tapering form. Its narrowing lines make the poem’s visual outline enact the mouse’s tail.
Apollinaire's Calligrammes : A collection of poems by Guillaume Apollinaire in which words form images on the page. Its image-shaped texts supplied a prominent early model for visually composed poetry.
Typography : The design and arrangement of type in printed or displayed text. Typeface, size, and placement give concrete poems visual rhythm and emphasis.
Haroldo de Campos : A Brazilian poet, translator, and literary theorist associated with the Noigandres group. He helped formulate the movement’s poetics and connect it to international modernism.
Shape poem : A poem whose lines are arranged to outline an image or object. Shape poems emphasize pictorial outlines, while concrete poetry can make spatial relations govern meaning.
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