Concrete Poetry Comes Alive Online

Guillaume Apollinaire’s “Il Pleut” (“It’s Raining”) is among the most famous of concrete or “shaped” poems. We like to call this kind of visual poetry “VisPo” — he called them “Calligrammes.” Now, in the age of YouTube and digital animation, concrete poetry has become something more than the typographical arrangement of words on a static two-dimensional page — it has come to life, crossing through the temporal dimension as the letters spring into motion. And Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino has recast Apollinaire’s poem in a digital rendition that is quite lovely. After seeing this new incarnation, we discovered a couple of other poetry films based on “Il Pleut” at YouTube, both from Milan Polytechnic:

• Animazione ispirata alla poesia “Il Pleut” di Guillaume Apollinaire, realizzata per il corso di Sviluppo Prodotto, presso il Politecnico di Milano
• Video di cinetipografia in After Effects su “Il Pleut” di Guillaume Apollinaire, realizzato per il laboratorio di concept del politecnico di Milano

Want to vote on which of these three best realizes Apollinaire’s poem?

We are still inviting contributions to our Concrete Poetry anthology, and we plan to post an expanded edition very soon, but we must remind you: Our poem submission form will not transmit the shape of your concrete poem. If you are sending us a shaped poem, please use the submission form to give us your name, your email address, the title of the poem you are sending, a brief description, and the permission we need before we can post anything — then send the poem separately by email to poetry.guide@about.com, either typed in the body of the message, or as an attached MSWord document or jpeg file. (You must alert us to your contribution in advance and give your permission to post it via the submission form, or we will not open your email attachment.)