1. Closed and Open Form. Concrete Poetry.
Conventions and Innovations

2. Poetic Form
Poetic form is the design of a poem described in terms of rhyme, meter, and stanzaic pattern.
Closed form is characterized by regular patterns of meter, rhyme, line length, stanzaic division. Often belongs to a traditional genre (ex., sonnet). Includes blank verse – unrhymed but otherwise regular.
Open form is characterized by irregular structure.

3. Open Poetic Forms
Free verse (vers libre) is unrhymed, with varying line length, without regular stanzas.
Prose poem looks like prose, has horizontal layout.
Visual poem based on visual effects (ex., typographical arrangement) more than words.
Sound poem is intended for oral presentation only; based on sound effects.
Concrete poetry – umbrella term for unconventional experimental poetry.

4. e.e.cummings ( )
American poet, novelist, playwright, and painter.
Disregarded, on purpose, conventional punctuation, syntax, and grammar.
Most known for combining modernist elements with traditional forms in poetry.
Employed typography for visual effects in poems.

5. May Swenson (1913-1989) American poet, playwright, and translator.
Her first language was Swedish.
Wrote on love, nature, and sexuality.
One of the first American female poets to explore the theme of same-sex love.

6. bpNichol (Barrie Phillip Nichol, 1944-1988)
Canadian poet, author of concrete poetry.
Known for visual books, sound poetry, performances, collages, theatrical pieces, digital poems, and other unconventional forms.

7. George Herbert (1593-1633) English religious poet and Anglican priest.
Famous for his orations.
Wrote metaphysical poetry.
Several of his poems are used by Church of England as hymns.
Some of his sayings became proverbs (“His bark is worse than his bite”).