When we finish with our unit on Herman Melville, we will be moving on to poetry for a while as you continue to read your three books for the term paper assignment. Since Penelope asked today about poems that take the shape of their subject, I thought I'd provide a few examples. As far as I can tell, there's no other name for this style of gimmick poetry other than "shape poetry" or "concrete poetry." This is defined as a poem in which the typographical arrangement of words on the page 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.
In the examples above, the male poem is intended to resemble a dumbbell, and the female poem is intended to resemble an hourglass. What can you come up with?
These are realy neat but I was wondering if this term would apply in a different way.
ReplyDeleteQuis multa gracilis te puer in rosa
-Horace Ode 1.1 line 1
You (a girl Pryhha) surrounded by a graceful boy surrounded by many roses.
http://www.funny-poems.co.uk/kids/odes-ends/m99-poet.asp
ReplyDeletehttp://www.peculiar-poetry.com/funny/family-poems/f06-late.htm
http://www.poetryireland.ie/publications/guest-blog/?p=19
my favorite:
http://shapepoems.co.uk/what_are_the_shape_poems.htm