Closed and Open Form. Concrete Poetry.

1. Closed and Open Form. Concrete Poetry. Conventions and Innovations

2. Poetic Form • Poetic form is the design of a poem described in terms of rhyme, meter, and stanzaic pattern. • Closed form is characterized by regular patterns of meter, rhyme, line length, stanzaic division. Often belongs to a traditional genre (ex., sonnet). Includes blank verse – unrhymed but otherwise regular. • Open form is characterized by irregular structure.

3. Open Poetic Forms • Free verse (vers libre) is unrhymed, with varying line length, without regular stanzas. • Prose poem looks like prose, has horizontal layout. • Visual poem based on visual effects (ex., typographical arrangement) more than words. • Sound poem is intended for oral presentation only; based on sound effects. • Concrete poetry – umbrella term for unconventional experimental poetry.

4. e.e.cummings(1894-1962) • American poet, novelist, playwright, and painter. • Disregarded, on purpose, conventional punctuation, syntax, and grammar. • Most known for combining modernist elements with traditional forms in poetry. • Employed typography for visual effects in poems.

5. May Swenson (1913-1989) • American poet, playwright, and translator. • Her first language was Swedish. • Wrote on love, nature, and sexuality. • One of the first American female poets to explore the theme of same-sex love.

6. bpNichol (Barrie Phillip Nichol, 1944-1988) • Canadian poet, author of concrete poetry. • Known for visual books, sound poetry, performances, collages, theatrical pieces, digital poems, and other unconventional forms.

7. George Herbert (1593-1633) • English religious poet and Anglican priest. • Famous for his orations. • Wrote metaphysical poetry. • Several of his poems are used by Church of England as hymns. • Some of his sayings became proverbs (“His bark is worse than his bite”).