What are Shape Poems?

The 20th century poets became bored of writing poems using a metrical pattern, rhymes-scheme and rhyme. Instead concepts used in creating haiku and Eastern poetry began to affect statements that make up a traditional poem. Rather than declaiming a poem, clear images and the usual speech pattern that expressed ideas in just a few lines turned more interesting. This gave birth to Shape poems which flourished in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Guillaume Apollinaire was a French writer who made use of Shape poetry aggressively. His poem, “It rains” are made up of words arranged in vertical lines depicting rain. Shape poems otherwise known as Concrete poetry have been inspired by a fusion of surrealism and dada. It was created as an attempt to escape the limitations of the traditional verse and to bring fresh vitality as well as range through the combining of images and words. The unique approach to languages and symbols gave a big inspiration. This time a poem is not just a verbal creation but has become an object or a Concrete poetry that can be read and seen.

Resources such as word processors gave a new momentum to Concrete poetry which led poets to understand more about computer-generated images and poems. Ian Hamilon Finlay, a Scottish writer is best known for his work of Concrete poems.

Unlike conventional forms of poetry, shape poems are visually oriented. Typically a Pattern poem is made up of complete as well as independent text that may form a shape, as opposed to Concrete poetry where the visual part is an important factor of the poem meaning the text is read together with the shape or form it represents.

A Shape poem is also defined as a way to describe an object while being written in the form of the object. To create this type of poem, it would be easier to first select a shape from different themes like celebrations, sports, school or nature. Within each theme, there are other various shapes to choose from.

Choosing a shape would help anyone to focus on a specific topic, brainstorm, write and change the poem. Once finished, the poem can be printed, cut then displayed anywhere appropriate.

Through the creation of a shape poem, the basic activities involved in writing are practiced. These activities are finding a topic, brainstorming for ideas, making a title, writing the poem, revising and finally publishing it. Any topic will do ranging from balloons to football anyone can choose their own shape.

While making a poem inside a shape, this will help a writer focus on a topic. At the same time, it becomes fun and exciting because you are making poetry different from the traditional way. It is not limited by rhyming and above all it is not entirely text, the visual aspect is also important.

Shape forms are indeed different, creativity is tested on two levels. First, writing the text of a poem requires generation of new concepts. Combining words and arranging these to represent the topic of the poem also needs a lot of imagination. What makes writing these poems fun is the challenge of expressing your thoughts not only through text but also through the form you are making via the arrangement of words.

Unconventional as this form of poetry might be however, it has been around for over a century now and will continue to do so because the Shape poetry is a simple way of conveying thoughts without the use of elaborate rhyming. In fact, even kids can write this. In addition, they won’t get bored because the visuals or shapes play a big role in making this type of poem.