Page 24 - Studio International - February 1966

The whereabouts of Concrete Poetry

by Jasia Reichardt

The classical example of One day someone will invent poetry accessible to all literature and the visual arts. Despite the obvious logic
Lewis Carroll's Mouse's Tail
five senses. Poetry that can be tasted, read, smelled, of this, the developments which led to the advent of
demonstratesthe specific use of image
as a counterpart to literary content. bought by the pound—poetry that can fill the environ- concrete poetry in the 1950's did not always follow this
The fact that the actual flow of ment and become architecture—poetry that anyhow premise. For instance, one could say that Apollinaire
words is hampered by the shape
within which they are contained will have inevitably ceased to belong to the printed used imaginative and brilliant methods of presenting
is not without significance.
page. As early as the 1870's Rimbaud expressed ideas literary ideas, but one could hardly describe the ideas
of which such a development would only be a logical themselves as revolutionary. With Apollinaire realism
conclusion. assumed a new form—his poem II Pleut was written in
Three dimensional poetry is still a speculation. What the form of falling rain. Calligrams represented his
Cubism implied in the development of art fifty years personal solution to the problem of synthesising two
ago, James Joyce meant to literature, but whereas forms of creative expression—painting and writing. His
Cubism was superseded by movements which have statement Et moi aussi je suis peintre throws light on
taken art out of the inevitable rectangle of the canvas, his attitude towards this hybrid form of poetic image-
and off the pedestal, no such revolutionary progress making.
could be said to have applied to the world of letters in The more revolutionary attitudes, however, which led
its formal aspect—at least, not until recently. more directly to concrete poetry, came from the
The ancestors of concrete poetry include among their Futurists and the Dadaists. At the time when Apollin-
ranks such distinguished figures as Mallarmé, Gertrude aire's calligrams were appearing in the Mercure de
Stein, and Apollinaire. The development which specific- France, Marinetti published a proclamation in Les
ally led to this avant-garde movement was the pre- Mots en Liberté, Milan, 1912 :
occupation with the relationship between literary 1 II faut détruire la syntaxe en disposant les
content and visual form. Mallarmé, whose Un Coup de substantifs au hasard de leur naissance.
Des was published in 1897, was concerned not only 2 II faut employer le verbe á l'infinitif.
with the disposition of words within the pages, but also 3 II faut abolir l'adjectif.
with the type-faces used and the sizes and weight of 4 II faut abolir l'adverbe.
the individual letters. Type was employed in a pictorial 5 Chaque substantif doit avoir son double.
way in so far as the layout was a definite visual 6 Plus de ponctuation.
composition ; it was also used to stress the content, and 7 ... une gradation d'analogies de plus en plusvariés.
one can see, for instance, the deliberate links between 8 II n'y a pas de categories d'images.
those words printed in capitals. The visual arrangement 9 ... chaîne des analogies.
of the poem was an inherent part of Mallarmé's intent. 10 ... maximum désordre.
Maiakovsky's statement that 'there is no revolutionary 11 Détruire le 'je' dans la littérature.
art without revolutionary form' applies equally to Visually, Les Mots en Liberté constituted chaotic mani-

Left
Stéfane Mallarmé
Un coup de Dés
amais n'abolira le hasard
Paris 1897
Right
Guillaume Apollinaire
La Cravate et la Montre
Paris 1918

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