Visual Presentation of Poetry

Visual Presentation of Poetry   

 Even before the advent of printing, the visual appearance of poetry often added meaning or depth. Acrostic poems conveyed meanings in the initial letters at other specific places in a poem in Arabic, Hebrew and Chinese poetry, the visual presentation of finely calligraphed poems has played an important part in the overall effect of many poems.

Some Modernist poets have made the placement of individual lines or groups of lines on the page an integral part of the poem's composition. At times, this complements the poem's rhythm through visual caesuras of various length or creates juxtaposition so as to accentuate meaning, ambiguity or irony or simply to create an aesthetically pleasing form. In its most extreme form, this can lead to concrete poetry or asemic writing.