Abstract poetry uses words for their sounds rather than their meanings, creating unique and memorable experiences. It developed in the 19th and 20th centuries, influenced by artists like TS Eliot and Edith Sitwell. The concept has influenced later generations of poets and became part of the larger trend of abstract art. Cummings’ work could also be considered abstract poetry.
Abstract poetry, as the name suggests, is poetry that does not lend itself to literal or concrete interpretation. Words are often chosen more for their sounds than their meanings, in the same way that abstract visual art is often more about color and shape than about creating representational images. This type of abstract poetry is also known as sound poetry. In a broader sense, abstract poetry is poetry that employs random imagery, stream of consciousness, and other abstract art techniques. While not to everyone’s taste, this type of poetry can create memorable aesthetic experiences.
Poetry is one of the oldest forms of literary art. In pre-literate times, bards and poets used rhymed verse to make oral stories and legends easier to remember. Over the centuries, poetry, like other art forms, has developed many forms of representation, to better tell a story or create a character or mood. It was not until the 19th and 20th centuries that artists began to experiment with forms that did not represent real-world people or objects, but still created surprising and pleasing forms. In both written and visual media, this was the beginning of abstract art.
The 20th century saw the work of many influential poets, including TS Eliot and Beat poets such as Allen Ginsberg. In the 20th century, British poet Edith Sitwell coined the term abstract poetry to describe her work, in which words were chosen for sounds rather than meanings. For example, her poem Hornpipe begins with the line “Sky rhinoceros-glum.” These seemingly random words have no obvious connection, but the reader searches for one, almost involuntarily. More importantly, for Sitwell, the three words together create a unique and memorable sound.
The term abstract poetry has not gained widespread use outside the circle of literary criticism. The concept did, however, influence later generations of poets and became part of the larger trend of abstract art. The performance artists of the 1960s and 1970s created their own forms of abstract poetry, as did the spoken word artists and slam poets of the 1980s and 1990s. Avant-garde musicians like Philip Glass created musical works with random sounds, just as Sitwell created poems with random words.
The line by ee cummings, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, could be considered abstract poetry. Although Cummings wrote about recognizable people, events, and concepts, his choice of words was often abstract. An example is the 20 poem, Anyone who lived in a pretty town, whose title is also the first verse. The poem is about life in the suburbs, with “pretty how town” chosen not to describe the suburb, but simply to create an unusual and memorable phrase. In naming his anonymous subject, Cummings deliberately chooses the word “anyone,” which does not suggest a mental image, reinforcing the character’s anonymity.
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