What is Abstract Poetry and Why Write It?
Coined by poet Edith Sitwell, the term abstract poetry refers to poems that feature more sound than sense.
Abstract poetry is the perfect kind of verse to write as a form of playing with words, to shake loose your inner poetic style. Think of the sounds similarly to how you would think of simple colors, shapes, and textures in an abstract painting.
Here is an abstract poetry sample from Sitwell:
The red retriever-haired satyr
Can whine and tease her and flatter,
But Lily O’Grady,
Silly and shady,
In the deep shade is a lazy lady;
Now Pompey’s dead, Homer’s read,
Heliogabalus lost his head,
And shade is on the brightest wing,
And dust forbids the bird to sing.
—Edith Sitwell, from “Popular Song” in Façade, 1923
Back when Tweetspeak was primarily a hub for after-Twitter-party poems woven by Glynn Young from the many tweets of party participants, sometimes evocative abstract poems such as the following would result:
No secrets
Tell, do tell. It won’t do to hold plum secrets.
A grace of pinwheels, rainbows rolling over
in the night. And in the palm of midnight,
the tiniest of secrets slips through gears of sheets.
Love palms a plum, copper flesh within skin.
And the pinwheel? Will you crush that too?
Skin the plum, you find silver. Unfold the sheet,
you find plum. Nothing is known, nothing done.
Plum secrets take time to ripen. The pinwheel turns
on its own, no stopping its spin, its copper plum.
—Glynn Young + the Twitter party-goers
Ultimately, your best poems of all kinds will have sounds that carry the sense of the poems. In fact, sometimes you’ll find that the issue with an otherwise good poem is that its sounds are countering its sense in unplanned and unhelpful ways. Reading your poems aloud can be a useful way to catch this.
Try It: Abstract Poetry
Playing with words in a low-key way through writing abstract poetry is a terrific exercise to create a stronger match between your poems’ meanings and their music.
Start by gathering words from the dictionary by visiting at least 5-10 different sections. Then mix your gathered words in pleasing ways, without worry for much meaning, but rather with an ear towards their combined music. Share your poem in the comment box below. We’d love to read!
Photo by Jr Korpa, Creative Commons, via Unsplash.
See more poetry terms
See more poem types like the sonnet, the abecedarian, and the villanelle
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Brendan R Walsh says
making our table
Silence the meeting and chance the greeting!
times long past yet future’s glance!
Ours to nurture, earth to nature
peace filled breezes o’er leaves of savored green
protect by hop and infant dreaming
oft thwarted by unseen greeding
the large is small, the small gains breadth
communal table takes life from death
the singular vision which had laid barren our bowl
now lays plans of what our forefathers first told
all of our natures coming together
shining our native ones brilliance
living the oneness we truly share
and giving our life to that resilience
L.L. Barkat says
Brendan, I especially like “Silence the meeting and chance the greeting!.”
Thanks for sharing your poem 🙂
Bethany says
I smiled at, “protect by hop and infant dreaming”
Glad you shared your poem!
Brendan R Walsh says
Thank you
Didn’t realize how hard it was to press the send button for this……
I appreciate the comment
BW
Joshua C. Frank says
No Hoots Left to Give
(First published in The Society of Classical Poets, August 28, 2023)
I gave away too many hoots—
I frittered hoots on dumb disputes,
Believing in my absolutes
A little common sense refutes.
I detoured down too many routes;
I gave away too many hoots
And saved no hoots to put down roots,
But spent my hoots on substitutes.
Like spending cash on prostitutes,
I spent my hoots on vain pursuits.
I gave away too many hoots
With no more thought than simple brutes.
You shall know them by their fruits
When they shall lead you ’way with flutes.
Too late it finally computes:
I gave away too many hoots.