Sunday, November 11, 2007

Question for Mr.G (no, that's not the title of my poem)

hi. i don't have a poem to post, but i have a question that hopefully Mr.G or anyone else can answer for me.

are anagrams and ambigrams forms of poetry? if yes, can they be considered concrete?

thanks,
cathy
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5 comments:

ENG3U Student said...

Cathy,

To avoid confusion here is a definition of 'anagram' from Wikipedia:

An anagram (Greek ana- = "back" or "again", and graphein = "to write") is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce other words, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., Silver-haired congenial scum = Louise is clever and charming

To answer yor question; while anagrams are often used in poetry to add a certain layer of meaning they are not usually regarded in and of themselves as poetry. I believe you are confusing 'anagrams' with 'epigrams' which are in fact conisdered short, witty poems with a definite turn.

Ambigrams (featured in Dan Brown's work, think The Da Vinci Code) could certainly be considered concrete poetry. They are (again from Wikipedia): a graphical figure that spells out a word not only in its form as presented, but also in another direction or orientation.

Hope this helps,
Mr. G

November 11, 2007 at 8:36 PM
ENG3U Student said...

I believe ambigrams are from Devils and Demons, not the Da Vinci Code.

!Jack

November 11, 2007 at 9:05 PM
ENG3U Student said...

You mean Angels and Demons.

November 11, 2007 at 9:27 PM
ENG3U Student said...

oopps ya, thats what I meant.

November 11, 2007 at 11:56 PM
ENG3U Student said...

Jack,

You're probably right, I have trouble keeping those two books separate in my head. It has been a while since I've read them.

Regards,
Mr. G

November 12, 2007 at 11:36 AM

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