A reversible poem, also called a palindrome poem or a reverso poem, is a poem that can be read both forwards and backwards, with a different meaning in each direction, like this:
| Initial order | Reversed order |
|---|---|
| The world is doomed I cannot believe that We can save the world |
We can save the world I cannot believe that The world is doomed |
Reversible poems, called hui-wen shih poems, were a Classical Chinese artform. The most famous poet using this style was the 4th-century poet Su Hui, who wrote an untitled poem now called "Star Gauge" (Chinese: 璇璣圖; pinyin: xuán jī tú). This poem contains 841 characters in a square grid that can be read backwards, forwards, and diagonally, with new and sometimes contradictory meanings in each direction. Reversible poems in Chinese may depend not only on the words themselves, but also on the tone to produce a sense of poetry. Beginning in the 1920s, punctuation (which is uncommon in Chinese) was sometimes added to clarify Chinese palindromic poems.
English-speaking poets such as Marilyn Singer and Brian Bilston have also published reversible poems.
Reversible poems are sometimes taught to students as a way of showing differing perspectives within the same words. In English, omitting punctuation and placing line breaks strategically are useful writing techniques for creating a reversible poem.
See also
References
- Metail, Michele (2017-03-28). Wild Geese Returning: Chinese Reversible Poems. New York Review of Books. ISBN 978-962-996-816-8.
- Hinton, David (2010-02-02). Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology. Macmillan (published 106). ISBN 978-0-374-53190-4.
- ^ Rea, Christopher (2015-09-08). The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China. Univ of California Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-0-520-28384-8.
- Dawes, Erika Thulin; Cunningham, Katie Egan; Enriquez, Grace; Cappiello, Mary Ann (2023). Reading With Purpose: Selecting and Using Children's Literature for Inquiry and Engagement. Teachers College Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-8077-8180-7.
- ^ Bland, Janice (2022-10-06). Compelling Stories for English Language Learners: Creativity, Interculturality and Critical Literacy. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 120–121. ISBN 978-1-350-19000-9.
- Mahalel, Adi (2023-04-01). The Radical Isaac: I. L. Peretz and the Rise of Jewish Socialism. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-9234-6.
- Gallagher, Kelly (2023-10-10). "Reverse Poems". Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-003-84304-7.
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