From Calligrammes to Concrete Poets

Vicente Huidobro - Chile, 1918- “Paysage” (“Landscape”)

Huidobro urged his fellow poets to emulate the French poets, who were experimenting with something call “literary cubism.” Since he had spent the previous year in Paris where he published a volume of cubist poetry himself, he spoke with considerable authority. In addition, Huidobro brought numerous examples of the new poetry with him.

In general, the French poets who served as Huidobro’s models respected the linear character of written discourse.

The typographical innovations are limited to the occasional displacement of margins, the incorporation of large white spaces, and the opportune use of capital letters.

Although most of the visual effects are unremarkable, one composition exploits pictorial conventions in a spectacular fashion. Dedicated to Pablo Picasso, “Paysage” (“Landscape”) juxtaposes five separate pictograms to create a verbo-visual painting.

LANDSCAPE

IN THE EVENING WE WILL STROLL DOWN PARALLEL PATHS

The moon in which you look at yourself

THE TREE WAS HIGHER THAN THE MOUNTAIN

BUT THE MOUNTAIN WAS SO WIDE IT PROJECTED

BEYOND THE EARTH’S EDGES

THE FLOWING RIVER CONTAINS NO FISH

DO NOT PLAY ON THE FRESHLY PAINTED GRASS

A SONG LEADS THE SHEEP TOWARD THE STABLE

Juan Bautista, 1919 Revelación

“Revelación” comprises a religious mediation interspersed with prayer and depicts God’s all-seeing eye. Visually it consists of an equilateral triangle inscribed in a circle, from which four diagonals radiate in different directions. The circle itself reproduces the first half of the Lord’s Prayer. Enclosing the word “DIOS” (“GOD”) in large boldface capitals, the triangle reads as follows: “only these elements could endanger a GOD who is both CEREBRAL AND –OH MARY MAGDALEN!- MEDULLARY.”) The elements in question appear to be the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit—symbolized by the equilateral triangle—whose names adorn the figures three corners. The four groups of radiating lines divide the twelve apostles, according to Bautista’s bizarre distinction, into either cerebral of medullary personality.

In contrast to the cerebrum, which is concerned with perception, thought, and conscious impulses, the medulla oblongata controls the body’s autonomic nervous systems. Bautista seems to be referring to the division between mind and body, between thought and passion that has informed Western metaphysics since the beginning. Thus the cerebral apostles—Paul, Peter, and John—are opposed to the intuitive apostles—Lebbeus, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon. And those who are not very cerebral—Bartholomew, Thomas, and Philip—are opposed those who are not very intuitive—Andrew Matthew, and James the son of Zebedee. As a former prostitute, Mary Magdalene is naturally associated with the body and its various functions. Ironically, since the Virgin Mary was primarily the receptacle of the divine impulse, she belongs to a similar category (“minimum cerebrality”). Where Bautista’s taxonomy breaks down, he finally informs us, is where the Creator is concerned. Just as God somehow manages to combine three identities in one, He alone is able to abolish the traditional mind/body dichotomy.

Goy de Silva, Silencio

Goy de Silva employed a similar device in a poem entitled “Silencio,” published in 191 9, where he juxtaposed the four cardinal points to form a star. Arranging them in the shape of a cross- he bisected each right angle with three lines so that light seemed to be radiating from the center. - Willard Bohn, Reading Visual Poetry, p 34

George Herbert's "Easter Wings", printed in 1633 on two facing pages (one stanza per page), sideways, so that the lines would call to mind birds flying up with outstretched wings.

"The Mouse's Tale" is a concrete poem by Lewis Carroll which appears in his novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Though no formal title for the poem is given in the novel, the chapter title refers to "A Long Tale" and the Mouse introduces it by saying, "Mine is a long and sad tale!"

Alice thinks the Mouse means its tail, which makes her imagine the poem in its twisted, tail-like shape, as shown on the right: