 concrete or shape poetry is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on. it is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has evolved to have distinct meaning of its own, but which shares the distinction of being poetry in which the visual elements are as important as the text. ==development== the term was coined in the 1950s. in 1956 an international exhibition of concrete poetry was shown in sÃ£o paulo, brazil, by the group noigandres (augusto and haroldo de campos, dÃ©cio pignatari and ronaldo azeredo) with the poets ferreira gullar and wlademir dias pino. two years later, a brazilian concrete poetry manifesto was published. one of the earliest brazilian pioneers, augusto de campos, has assembled a web site of old and new work (see external links below), including the manifesto. its principal tenet is that using words as part of a specifically visual work allows for the words themselves to become part of the poetry, rather than just unseen vehicles for ideas. the original manifesto says: :concrete poetry begins by assuming a total responsibility before language: accepting the premise of the historical idiom as the indispensable nucleus of communication, it refuses to absorb words as mere indifferent vehicles, without life, without personality without history â taboo-tombs in which convention insists on burying the idea.: although the term is modern, the idea of using letter arrangements to enhance the meaning of a poem is an old one. this style of poetry originated in greek alexandria during the 3rd and 2nd centuries bc. some were designed as decoration for religious art-works, including wing-, axe- and altar-shaped poems. only a handful of examples survive, which are collected together in the greek anthology. they include poems by simias and theocritus. early examples of typographically based concrete poetry include the following poem by george herbert (1593â1633) (here in a scan of the 1633 edition of herbert's the temple), in which the poem is merely a comment on the title, which presents the poem's principal meaning typographically: another early precursor from herbert is "easter wings", in which the overall typography of the poem is in the shape of its subject. [[alice's adventures in won
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