Anti-poetry is an

art movement An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defi ...

that attempts to break away from the normal conventions of traditional

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

. Early proponents of anti-poetry include the Chilean

Nicanor Parra Nicanor Segundo Parra Sandoval (5 September 1914 – 23 January 2018) was a Chilean poet and physicist. He was considered one of the most influential Chilean poets of the Spanish language in the 20th century, often compared with Pablo Neruda. P ...

and the Greek

Elias Petropoulos Elias Petropoulos ( el, Ηλίας Πετρόπουλος; Athens June 26, 1928 - Paris September 3, 2003) was a Greek author, folklorist and urban historian. A self-described "urban anthropologist," he wrote on aspects of Greek life that were rar ...

. Parra, known as the father of anti-poetry, published his first collection of antipoems in 1954 and sought to reject the belief that verse holds any mystical power. The poems have been described as prose-like, irreverent, and illuminating the problems of human existence. Elias Petropoulos had tried to describe the art of ''Anti-poetry''. This was in his “notebook” in Berlin; containing verses that included intentionally made mistakes in regard to prosody, grammar and rhyme. The inspiration for many of Petropoulos poems had been the difficult atmosphere of the wall divided German metropolis where he was residing. Petropoulos had long come to the conclusion that poetry about love and desires was becoming too gentle for the literature of modern age. Rather it was time to introduce anti-poetry by incorporating anti-sentimentalism feelings and reaction within poems.Taylor, John. “Poetry Today” N.p., Web. June 1, 2009.

Early history

During 5th century B.C theatrical Sketches called Mimes were being introduced with ideas and languages that were determined to be Anti-plays. There had been times when poets would turn against his/her own poetry in an antagonistic way. Anti poetry can be found and cited from the first poets of Italy and also (

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

, followed by

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...

) as well as some other places in Europe. They had made the decision to compose verses in vernacular rather than Latin; they were behaving in an anti-poetic manner. Many Playwrights which include both

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

and Moliere were some of the writers cited for using ''Anti-poetry'' within their work now and then in the midst of a verse play.

Modern Anti-poetry

Anti-poetry has been picked up in the 21st century. Modern anti-poetry carries the same spirit as the early writers, but is still distinct in nature. In modern anti-poetry, punctuation is minimal and only used as necessary. Formatting and capitalization are simple and friendly to the eye. It also incorporates new vocabulary and depicts poetic images and scenes.

Anti-poetry reading performance

Taking inspiration from

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...

and performance poetry anti-poetry reading performances have gained momentum in the

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. The Prague-based performance and poetics collective Object:Paradise began in 2019 by Tyko Say with the mission to make "

poetry readings A poetry reading is a public oral recitation or performance of poetry. Reading poetry aloud allows the reader to express their own experience through poetry, changing the poem according to their sensibilities. The reader uses pitch and stress, and ...

more inclusive and inter-disciplinary and less restricted to art cafes and turtlenecks". Since then, the collective has hosted performance poetry events which feature a variety of disciplines happening at the same time to highlight "everything that happens at a

poetry reading A poetry reading is a public oral recitation or performance of poetry. Reading poetry aloud allows the reader to express their own experience through poetry, changing the poem according to their sensibilities. The reader uses pitch and stress, and ...

besides the poetry reading itself".

References

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External links

The technique of anti-poetry
an essay by Edith Grossman

Poetry movements 1954 in literature

Early history

Modern Anti-poetry

Anti-poetry reading performance

See also

References

External links