More than anything, perhaps, this volume strives to elucidate the concept of poesie critique, which has received very little attention. This omission is surprising since the genre influenced the Surrealist invention of poesie synthetique as well as many writers who followed Apollinaire, trying to reconcile poetry and criticism.

In this, the only full-length study of the visual poetry of the early twentieth century, Willard Bohn expertly illuminates the works of Apollinaire, Josep-Maria Junow, Guillermo de Torre, and others. His fascinating aesthetic insights bring to life this elusive and often misunderstood genre. "An important contribution. Highly sophisticated, the study tends to raise its reader's impression of visual poetry in the twentieth century from trivial pastime to serious preoccupation."—Eric Sellin, Journal of Modern Literature "With his definitive analyses full of quotable observations and sharp critical insights, Bohn has provided a model, pioneering study, one from which current and future studies of visual poetry will most certainly benefit."—Gerald J. Janacek, Romance Quarterly "Bohn substantiates his thesis with thoughtful and often ingenious explications of texts both well known and hard to find. . . . Aesthetics of Visual Poetry is a thoroughly researched, beautifully written and fascinating introduction to an infinitely intriguing genre."—Mechthild Cranston, French Review

Poet, critic, impresario, gadfly, visionary, tastemaker: more than anyone, Guillaume Apollinaire embodies the frenzied art world of Paris in the early 20th century. His rampant enthusiasms and antipathies, and his remarkable acumen, make him still today the most evocative commentator on the intellectual ferment of the time. In 1905 he championed Picasso and in 1907 he promoted Braque in reviews that were amazingly sharp and prescient. He first identified the importance of Delaunay, Duchamp, and Rousseau, coined the word "Surrealism," and almost singlehandedly pushed Cubism into the mainstream. With a new preface by Roger Shattuck, this edition of Apollinaire on Art is the only collection in English of these seminal and ever fresh writings.

Early in the century, poets expanded the possibilities of their genre by creating sound poems, by dispensing with syntax and punctuation, and by arranging words and letters across the page in new visual patterns. This book explores ways of reading the aesthetically challenging and semiotically subversive texts created by four poets: F.T. Marinetti (1876-1944), Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) and e.e. cummings (1894-1962). The book shows us how to read these experimental texts in a variety of interrelated ways: as products of each poet's individual aesthetic, as part of the avant-garde's reaction to aestheticism, as efforts to bring art closer to life, and as attempts to c reate a new kind of semiotically and aesthetically 'open' work. The book concludes by emphasizing the individual invention of its four central figures rather than placing them in their usual roles as precursors to the concrete poetry movement of the fifties.

Far from frivolous playthings, modern visual poems represent serious experiments. Together with other members of the avant-grade, the visual poets sought to restructure the basic vision of reality that they inherited from their predecessors. This statement describes contemporary visual poets as well who, like their earlier colleagues, strive to say things that are more meaningful in ways that are more meaningful."--BOOK JACKET.

Visual poetry can be defined as poetry that is meant to be seen. Combining painting and poetry, it attempts to synthesize the principles underlying each discipline. Visual poems are immediately recognizable by their refusal to adhere to a rectilinear grid and by their tendency to flout their plasticity. In contrast to traditional poetry, they are conceived not only as literary works but also as works of art. Although they continue to provide visual cues that aid in deciphering the text, they function simultaneously as visual compositions. Whether the visual elements form a rudimentary pattern or whether they constitute a highly sophisticated design, they transform the poem into a picture. Reading Visual Poetry examines works created in Spain, Latin America, France, Italy, Brazil, and the United States. While it attempts to recreate the historical and cultural context surrounding each of the works in question, it is conceived primarily as a series of readings-or rather as a series of readings about reading. This book seeks to interpret a number of poems, which, despite their apparent simplicity, can be difficult to decipher. It explores the process of interpretation itself, which, like the compositions, can be surprisingly complex.