Concrete poetry

Concrete poetry, simply put, is poetry where the visual representation on the page is very important. It often makes a picture or some graphical representation with it’s arrangement of words and letters. This form of verse is a modern development of a form known as the altar poem. The phrase was coined in the 1950’s. The essential element of concrete poetry is that it must have visual impact. The poem can take the shape of whatever it is about or the way the form and content work together can be more subtle. Some of the examples by Mark Insingel in this studypack show how the form and content can work together to produce more subtle effects. Another manifestation of this form of poetry is ASCII poetry.

It should be pointed out that concrete poetry, as opposed to many other forms of poetry, is not normally meant to be read aloud and in fact it may not work without the reader being able to see the poem printed on the page.

You can find out more about concrete poetry from the Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and from other works and websites sited on the >further reading page.