Calligram

カリグラム / antiquity–modernism / Technique / Letterform Expression

Turns the arrangement of words into the shape of their meaning — reading and seeing at once.

Text drawing a contour / Shifting reading direction / Meaningful blank space / Poem fused with figure

Calligram — Guillaume Apollinaire, Il pleut, 1918Calligram — アポリネール カリグラム『エッフェル塔』Calligram — アポリネール『刺された鳩と噴水』
Guillaume Apollinaire, Il pleut, 1918 ／ アポリネール カリグラム『エッフェル塔』 ／ アポリネール『刺された鳩と噴水』

Dictionary entry

Best used for
Making a short poem or title physically felt · A symbolic image from letters alone
Type
One face or one hand, keeping the words continuous
Composition
Convert the sentence into contour, path and density; mark where reading begins
Material
Letter and paper as two colors; the shape itself is the star
Caution
Don't fix a silhouette first and stuff words in. Let the text's rhythm generate the form.
Further study
Guillaume Apollinaire / concrete poetry

Related entries

Source: Wikimedia Commons — Il pleut

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