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codex-shaped poem

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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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 poem structured or designed to resemble the physical shape of a book.

Detailed Definition
A codex-shaped poem visually or structurally mimics the form of a medieval manuscript codex, using lineation, indentation, or page layout to evoke the aesthetics of handwritten texts; this concrete or visual strategy draws attention to the poem’s materiality and historical lineage as a book-bound artifact.
Example
Example in poetry:
Jen Bervin’s “Nets” physically reshapes Shakespeare’s sonnets into a codex where erasures form new poems within the original rectangular layout; Anne Carson’s “Nox” unfolds as an accordion-bound codex mimicking a burial shroud, its shape integral to its elegiac function; M. NourbeSe Philip’s “Zong!” arranges fragmented legal text in vertical columns resembling slave ship manifests, shaping the codex as memorial; Rachel Blau DuPlessis’s “Graphic Novella” uses a codex format with hand-drawn diagrams and marginalia to visualize poetic thought; In “The Codex Canadensis,” Jordan Scott and Stephen Collis transform a 17th-century botanical manuscript into a shaped poetic codex exploring colonial ecology.
Additional Notes
codex-shaped poem|A poem whose visual layout on the page physically resembles a bound book, scroll, or codex, often used in concrete or visual poetry.
Also Known As
book-shaped poem codex form verse manuscript-shaped lyric Bibliomorphic verse
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