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gestural poetry

Concept
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

Poetry that emphasizes bodily movement, performance, or kinetic expression

Detailed Definition
Gestural poetry emphasizes physical movement, spatial arrangement, or bodily presence—either in performance or on the page—as integral to meaning; related to concrete and performance poetry, it treats the poem as an event or object where posture, spacing, or motion convey what words alone cannot, foregrounding the body’s role in poetic expression.
Example
Example in poetry:
Gestural poetry emphasizes physical movement or performance, as in E.E. Cummings’ typographical experiments: “l(a / le / af / fa / ll / s)”; In “Body of My Love,” Ntozake Shange uses choreopoem gestures; Another: poems meant to be read with hand motions, like those in Cecilia Vicuña’s “Precarious” series; Contemporary slam poetry often uses gestural elements to amplify meaning
Additional Notes
Gestural poetry emphasizes physical movement, posture, or spatial arrangement—either in performance or on the page—to convey meaning beyond words; related to concrete and performance poetry traditions.
Also Known As
Kinetic verse Bodily lyric Movement-based poem embodied gesture Pointing composition
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