Home › Glossary › Letter B

backward visual poem

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A concrete or shape poem designed to be read backward, mirrored, or from an inverted perspective for thematic or visual effect.

Detailed Definition
A backward visual poem is a concrete or visual poem whose typographic arrangement is designed to be legible only when viewed upside down, in a mirror, or reversed, merging form and content to challenge perception and emphasize the materiality of language as visual artifact.
Example
Example in poetry:
A shaped poem whose text forms a backward arrow; A visual poem that spirals inward as if read backward; A design where letters face reversed direction; A mirrored text forming a backward visual structure
Additional Notes
backward visual poem is a poem whose visual design or structure is meant to be read from bottom to top, or right to left, reversing the customary reading direction; a type of concrete poetry.
Also Known As
retro-visual poem inverse visual poem backward pictopoem negative space poem Caligramme inversé
Skip to main content