Compound constraint combines multiple rules—e.g., lipogram plus acrostic—creating layered technical demands that intensify poetic challenge; such constraints test the poet’s ingenuity in navigating intersecting limitations, often producing highly structured works where form becomes a generative engine, as seen in Oulipo, where combinatorial complexity yields unexpected semantic richness through disciplined multiplicity.

Compound constraint combines two or more rules (e.g., lipogram + palindrome). It’s central to Oulipo’s ethos—complexity through intersection. Students should start simple, then layer constraints. Examples: a bilingual anagrammatic sonnet. Compound constraints reveal how rules interact, sometimes productively, sometimes paradoxically.