picasso's poetry used the letters of a word to make a poem.
picasso's poetry used the letters of a word to make a poem.
using the letters of a word to make a poem?
picasso's poetry
the first letters make up the acrostich and the last letters the telestich; in this case they are identical.









































the poem "behold, o god!", by william browne, can be considered a complex kind of acrostic. 









































in the manuscript, some letters are capitalized and written extra-large, non-italic, and in red, and the lines are shifted left or right and internally spaced out as necessary to position the red letters within three crosses that extend through all the lines of the poem. 









































the letters within each cross spell out a verse from the new testament:
acrostic
formally, “i am offering this poem” can be considered an ode, an adulatory poem written to, or about a specific person, and in this case, thing- as baca praises poetry itself. furthermore, we can consider this work to be an example of free verse, as it follows no specific metre. also, the lines that constitute the poem (primarily) do not rhyme, and they are of varying lengths. however, one constant in the poem is the refrain that ends the stanzas, which also help to group the poem. this refrain is a sweet reminder, simply: “i love you.” not only does this add form to an otherwise very free poem, it also reiterates the tone(s) central to the work- poetry is important, it's all he [our speaker] has to give, and it symbolizes, nay is, love. our speaker is never identified, all we know is that he’s a poet, with a lot of love to give to a similarly unidentified speaker. of course, we can like the dependence upon poetry/art to baca’s own life, but the ambiguity surrounding both the speaker and the subject of the poem, lends the work an air of generalness, which may be a conscious effort by baca to make the piece relevant and relatable. this vastness is furthered by the lack of specific setting as well; in the end of the poem the speaker refers generally to the "world outside," which he characterizes as cold, uncaring- in direct opposition to the warmer parts of the piece. metaphor and simile are two examples of literary devices used by baca to provide imagery to the poem and specifically to describe the effects of his poem. in lines 3-4, the speaker tells the subject to keep his poem like a warm coat, later on he likens the poem to a “pair of thick socks;” both these comparisons connote a sense of warmth and intimacy. the poem is the subject of more comparisons, however: in lines 14-15, the speaker tells the subject to refer to his poem when they are “lost” or need “direction.” these words help lend the poem a connotation of guidance, which is only furthered when our speaker calls life/the world around him (and us) “wilderness.” the last theme that is illuminated by poetic comparison is the physical poverty of the speaker- and the subsequent spiritual richness. in the beginning of the poem, he iterates, and reiterates, that he has “nothing else” to give but the poem. as well, line 24 reveals the survivalist qualities of a poem, as our speaker states, “it's all anyone needs to live." these tropes give way to the ultimate themes of “i am offering this poem:” love, writing/art, and the physical and spiritual understandings of home and protection. love is perhaps the most easily understood theme of the work, as the word is thrown around so much, especially with the refrain, “i love you.” however, love isn’t expressed in the more typical ways like marriage, romance, sex, or stability- baca creates a symbol for love with poetry itself. this highlights another clear theme in the work- of the (sentimental) value of writing; in this way, we can extrapolate a meta quality from the work- it is a poem about poetry. lastly, “i am offering this poem” creates a sense of home (and the protection that it allows) with specific diction, such as that occurring in the second to last stanza, which states: “treasure this [poem] as you would, if you were lost, needing direction, in the wilderness life becomes when mature; and in the corner of your drawer, tucked away like a cabin or hogan,” as well as that in the beginning: “keep it [poem] like a warm coat when winter comes to cover you.” with this and other comparisons to the speaker’s poem, the work displays strong examples of the value of literature.
i am offering this poem