THE ART OF POETRY--VISIBLE PATTERNS ~ Literary Hunt

Visible patterns

Often poets organize their words into patterns that are both noticeable and heard. For example, poems have been written in shapes— usually shapes of objects that reflect the subject or theme of poetry. For example, Robert Herrick, a 17th-century English poet, wrote formed poetry; his "Pillar of Fame" looks like his subject:

Fame' s pillar here, at last, we set,
Out-during Marble , Brass, or Fet,

Charm'd and enchanted so,

As to withstand the blow

Of overthrow:
Nor shall the seas

Or OUTRAGES

Of storms o'erbear
What we uprear

Tho Kingdoms fall,

This pillar never shall

Decline or waste at all;

But stand for ever by his own

Firm and well fixed foundation.

Similarly, Dylan Thomas * wrote a long poem called "Vision and Prayer," divided into 12 parts, of which six were shaped like diamonds and six like hour-glasses.

The acrostic is another method used by poets to pattern the presentation of a poem. The first letter (or letters) of each line constitutes a word or phrase related to the subject of the poem. In his Life of Constantine, Bishop Eusebius (third century A.D.) cited a Greek poem in which the first letters of the verses formed the words "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior." So the first letters from the 22 parts make up the Hebrew alphabet in the 119th Psalm of the Old Testament. Often the first letters of an acrostic form the title of the poem; the Roman writer Plautus* and the English writer Ben Jonson* of the 16th century used this device in the preface to their plays.

V olpone, childlefle, rich,faincs fick,defpaires,
O fers his ftate tohopes of feuerall heyres,
L ies languifhing;His Parafite receaucs
P refents of all,affures,deludes :Then weaues
O ther croffe-plots,which ope 'themfelues, are told,
N ew tricks for fafety,are fought; They thrnue:When,bold,
E ach tempt's th'other againe,and all are fold,

How two writers used visual patterns to add to the impact of their verse: Ben Jonson's 1606 preface to his play Volpone (top poem) takes the form of an acrostic (explained in text).

Poem in bottle-a
satirical ode to wine-appears in a 1605 edition of
Pantagruel, by French writer François Rabelais.

More often used for decoration are form poetry and acrostic, or to show off the poet's abilities. Yet the presence of a poem may also have a, more important application. Most contemporary free verse writers* have used multimedia methods to contribute to the meaning of their poems. One of the easiest methods is that of having one word to stand alone, like a line in itself. The term acquires additional value and influence in this manner. For eg, the influence of the isolated word would be ruined in the following lines by the modern American poet William Carlos Williams if it were addressed on some other line:

There were never satyrs

never maenads

never eagle-headed gods-

These were men

from whose hands sprung

love

bursting the wood-

Other writers have experimented with more complex techniques: bending the grammar rules, punctuation, and spelling; linking terms together to make unusual compounds; throwing terms around the paper. The French poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), the German poet Arno Holz (1863-1929), and the American poet E E Cummings (1894-1962), among others, also used approaches like these.

"Tavola parolibera," a Futurist poem written in a mixture of French and nonsense language by Italian-born poet and musician Filippo Marinetti (1876-1944). Marinetti (who coined the maxim that beauty has nothing to do with art) did not compose-he performed. His poems, like his musical works, combined spontaneous cries and commands with sudden actions.

Sometimes, these poems can be powerful and thrilling because of their originality. However, on certain occasions, they can be almost unreadable due to the utter absence of some form of order or sequence. Below are a few lines from one of E E Cummings less difficult poems:

when

sunbeams loot

furnished rooms through whose foul windows absurd

clouds cruise nobly ridiculous skies

(the;mselve;s a;nd scr;a;tch-ing lousy full. of. rain

beggars yaw:nstrelchy:awn)

then,

It's Spring

Paul Éluard (1895-1952), working in German-occupied France, collaborated with painter Fernand Léger to create the poem above, "Liberty."

Modern poets have continued to explore the possibilities of making visual patterns in their verse. At the beginning of this century, French poet Guillaume Apollinaire wrote many verses that looked like their subject, including "Rain"

Shaped verses were used by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in his poem "Vision and Prayer," right.

THE ART OF POETRY--VISIBLE PATTERNS

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