Palindromes, Poems and Geometric Form

Abstract

Emphasizing the similarities between the form of the palindrome and the forms of certain modern American short poems, I urge the recognition of a unique kind of little-studied, modern, cyclic, poetic form which, lacking an established term, I call "palindromic" form. Widely used by twentieth-century American poets, this kind of form is distinguishable from the better-known, traditional kinds of poetic form, though it sometimes occurs in combination with them. Cedric Hubbell Whitman’s discussion of ring composition and hysteron proteron in the Iliad reveals the classical origin of this form and suggests that its larger class is geometric form.