Guillaume Apollinaire :Guillaume Apollinaire Experiments in poetry Linda C.H. Lai


Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) :Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) Poet who took part in avant-garde movements in French literature in the beginning of 20th century. 1st work (15 years of poetry): ALCOOLS (1913) http://www.wiu.edu/apollinaire/ (in French) http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/737 (in English) http://www.slideshare.net/Pawlowski/le-pont-mirabeau-recorded-by-apollinaire-in-1913-presentation (to listen to Apollinaire’s reading in 1913)


Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) :Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) “Poetry as usually read today, silently and from a monotonously printed text, fails to exploit its two principal sensuous aspects” *shape *sound


Guillaume Apollinaire :Guillaume Apollinaire Poetry as a visual experience: *figure & ground: the perception of dark figures arranged on a light surface (or vice versa) -- type size, paragraphing, run-down pattern, generic forms etc.  organization thought via visual arrangement (spatialization of text)


Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry :Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry Efforts to make a poem a distinct visual object… Some methods: Principle of the ideogram [a written sign that represents an idea or thing rather than the sound of a word] Calligrammes (visual + verbal composition)


Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry :Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry What are “Calligrammes”? Plastic arrangement of words on writing surfaces “visual lyricism” Visual poetry / spatial poetry


Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry :Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry What are “Calligrammes”? Visual poetry / spatial poetry Derived from TWO techniques – Fragmentation Recombination (of fragments) (in his conversation poems)


Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry :Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry What are “Calligrammes”? Fragmentation / Recombination Simultaneous nature of consciousness  (abandoning) Discursive expression Linear layout of poem


Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry :Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry What are “Calligrammes”? Fragmentation / Recombination Typographical revolution – “It is necessary that our intelligence become accustomed to understanding synthetico-ideographically instead of analytico-discursively.” (G. Arbouin)


Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry :Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry 3 different fashions in the plastic arrangement of words (Calligrammes): (1) to represent the objects being described (2) to represent a total conception of the order of the world or of the universe (3) to express a movement of thought within the poem (writing for the eye)


Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry :Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry To represent the objects being described e.g. Paysage (Landscape), La Cravate et la Montre (The Tie and the Watch), Il Pleut (It’s Raining)


Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry :Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry


Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry :Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry To represent a total conception of the order of the world or of the universe e.g. Lettre-Océan (Ocean Letter)


Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry :Guillaume Apollinaire: poetry To express a movement of thought within the poem (writing for the eye): e.g. Visée (Aim)


Guillaume Apollinaire :Guillaume Apollinaire Poetry as an aural experience: Sound of the words in combination http://www.slideshare.net/Pawlowski/le-pont-mirabeau-recorded-by-apollinaire-in-1913-presentation (to listen to Apollinaire’s reading in 1913)


Apollinaire: Poetry as an aural experience :Apollinaire: Poetry as an aural experience :Sound of the words in combination: 2 methods (1) To write while humming a tune to whose rhythm he could fit words [to upkeep meter-consciousness] (2) “Poemes conversations” [combining at random the odd sentences and phrases that occurred to him or that he overheard]


Poetry as an aural experience :Poetry as an aural experience Sound of the words in combination Pure sound: Exploration of vowel qualities, alliteration, rhymes etc. e.g. “Voyage à Paris” (Voyage to Paris)


Guillaume Apollinaire’s Calligrammes :Guillaume Apollinaire’s Calligrammes Espen J. Arseth cites Apollinaire’s non-linear texts in “calligrammes” as examples of ergodic literature which also characterizes the cybertextual process See his book, Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature (1997)


A more generic term: Concrete poetry :A more generic term: Concrete poetry Other names: pattern poetry, shape poetry Typographical arrangement of words is as important as the conventional elements (meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme…) The words themselves form a picture. [imagery]


Concrete poetry :Concrete poetry Term coined by Augusto de Campos Useful reference: The Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry: http://www.rediscov.com/sacknerarchives/ Indexes to webpages and print resources: http://www.gardendigest.com/concrete/index.html On “pattern poetry”: Dick Higgins, Pattern Poetry: Guide to an Unknown Literature. State University of New York, 1987.


Concrete poetry :Concrete poetry Interactive puzzle poetry: Jennifer Kathleen Phillips – http://www.geocities.com/visualpoetry_au/vpoem.html