Hypertext Poetry
Description
Hypertext poetry, is a subgenre of digital poetry. Digital poetry is sometimes referred to as e-poetry, electronic poetry, and cyberpoetry. The genre mostly falls into two subgenres: interactive poetry and hypertext poetry (Poetry Beyond Text).
Hypertext poetry utilizes the components of hypertexts. Hyperlinks are embedded, throughout, or in some cases "each word, phrase or line." Each link brings the reader to another page "that defines or expands on the idea represented by the text of the poem" (Hypertext Poetry And Fiction). The links most often stem from the "primary text. However, some hypertext poems that do not have a primary text. In these works, the reader of the poem choos the way he navigates the poem through the amount and pattern he chooses with the hyperlinks (Montecino).
Kairos
With the digital revolution, there is a growing number of writers using electronic media to create and publish their works (Kendall). Many writers in using electronic format expanded to include the format of the hypertext, which is interactive in nature. Writers are able to break away from the restrictions of paper (Kendall) and use content and features to create nonlinear poems that are associated with the medium. The hypertext also allows writers to experiment with elements like hyperlinks, images, sounds, and video (Kendall).
Audience
The audience plays an interactive role in the navigating and reading a hypertext poem. Astrid Ensslin argues hypertext poetry, which she terms hyperpoetry, is the "most creative and trans-artistic genre" out of all the hypertext genres because it offers the most "multisensory textual experience." She argues this because it incorporates "nomadism" and brings the reader away from the "verbal narrative” (Ennslin).
Hypertext Poetry is on the trend to become increasingly more popular in the upcoming years, as more and more writers use digital media to create and publish their works. The genre attracts users who want to be involved in the reading experience (Picot).
Content
Hypertext poems can include the traditional components of a poem which are: words, lines, and stanzas. Most are in the form of free verse. However, the genre also includes other multimedia components including: sounds, visual images, and three-dimensional letters, which makes it hard to identify most of the formal poetic conventions (Hypertext Poetry And Fiction).
Formal Features
Hypertext poems include "hypertextual features" which are mostly composed of hyperlinks that lead to a nonlinear reading of the text (Ensslin).
Hypertext poetry also includes hypermedia poetry. It moves beyond linking text to other websites, and adds features such as, "image, sound, video and animation" (Millan). An example of these features could be a sound "of a lawn mower" with words like "'mowing', 'stop', 'Sunday' and 'morning'" in succession across the readers screen (Hypertext Poetry And Fiction). These types of features, or multimedia elements, make it hard to link hypertext poetry to any formal poetry conventions (Hypertext Poetry And Fiction).
Ancestral Genres
One ancestral genre to hypertext poetry is the hypertext. Hypertexts allow a nonlinear reading of the text in which an audience is able to have an interactive experience with the text through the use of hyperlinks, which when clicked on, bring the reader to another website (Christopher Funkhouser). Hyperlinks, are often referred to as simply links, and utilize URLs, HTTPs, and HTMLs, (What are Hyperlinks?). Usually hyperlinks are in the form of highlighted or "underlined" (Montecino) words within the text, which when clicked bring the viewer to another website that provides an expansion on the concept (What are Hyperlinks?). Christopher Funkhouser expands on the audience's interactive role with the hypertext, and how based on his, "interest, engagement, and curiosity" he can control his navigation of the text.
Hypertext also functions as a collaborative text by blurring the roles of author and reader become (Keep). Hypertexts are seen as electronic texts but Christopher Keep argues that hypertexts are not restricted to "technology, content, or medium" (Keep).
Oral poetry shares the nonlinear shape of hypertext poetry. With each reading of an oral poem it changes shape, which relates to how hypertext poetry changes for each reader that reads the poem because of the nonlinear interactive navigation of the text (Ennslin).
Notable Examples of Hypertext Poetry
Penetration: Is a well-known example of a hypertext poem. The poem is from the collection The Seasons, which was published in 2000 by Eastgate. The collection consists of two poems: Dispossession and Penetration. The poem is set up so that the reader has choice to begin the poem through different perspectives. For example, by clicking on "daylight" the poem is in the perspective of the daughter (Di Rosario). Then the path of the poem is dictated by the what the reader chooses after each passage, by clicking on one of the series of choices below the passage (Di Rosario).
Low Probability of Racoons: Is a website set up by Peter Howard, a well known digital poet, for some of his works, some of which includes hyperlinks his own hypertext poetry.
Works Cited
006, www.poetrykit.org/pkmag/pkmag10/028.htm.
A Companion to Digital Literary Studies, digitalhumanities.org:3030/companion/view
docId=blackwell%2F9781405148641%2F9781405148641.xml&chunk.id=ss1-5
11&toc.depth=1&toc.id=ss1-5
11&brand=9781405148641_brand&query=hypertext%2Bpoetry.
After the Critique of Lyric | PMLA 123(1),
www.mlajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1632/pmla.2008.123.1.195.
“Canonizing Hypertext.” Google Books, books.google.com/books
id=G1YSBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25&dq=hypertext%2Bpoetry%2Bfeatures&
ource=bl&ots=YdVpqXh7RE&sig=BaKaM0MVSPi8.
COMPUTER GENERATED POETRY AND VISUAL ARTS,
www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~nxm/mscPoetry/survey/CGPoetry.htm#_Toc525619644.
Digital-Poetry - Poetry Beyond Text, www.poetrybeyondtext.org/digital-poetry.html.
Di Rosario, Giovanna. Electronic Poetry: Understanding Poetry in the Digital
Environment. Jyväskylä University Printing House. 2011.
“Electronic Poetry and Fiction.” Robert Kendall, wordcircuits.com/kendall/#!essays/pw1.htm.
“Free Verse: From A Poet's Glossary.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, 21 June 2016,
www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/free-verse-poets-glossary.
“Free Verse.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation,
www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/free-verse.
HYPERTEXT POETRY AND FICTION,
course1.winona.edu/geddy/Eng353/hypertext_poetry_and_fiction.htm.
“Ideas of Space in Contemporary Poetry.” Google Books, books.google.com/books
id=YvnMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA180&lpg=PA180&dq=low%2Bprobability%2Bof%2Braccoons
2Bpeter%2Bhoward&source=bl&ots=JjlF_SNmVp&sig=OxaT6bsKU2W0o6XwjXD22XtjLDE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjs27a8y7jZAhXsdN8KHYbdDswQ6AEIRjAF#v=onepage&q=low%20probability%20of%20raccoons%20peter%20howard&f=false.
Hypertext poetry, is a subgenre of digital poetry. Digital poetry is sometimes referred to as e-poetry, electronic poetry, and cyberpoetry. The genre mostly falls into two subgenres: interactive poetry and hypertext poetry (Poetry Beyond Text).
Hypertext poetry utilizes the components of hypertexts. Hyperlinks are embedded, throughout, or in some cases "each word, phrase or line." Each link brings the reader to another page "that defines or expands on the idea represented by the text of the poem" (Hypertext Poetry And Fiction). The links most often stem from the "primary text. However, some hypertext poems that do not have a primary text. In these works, the reader of the poem choos the way he navigates the poem through the amount and pattern he chooses with the hyperlinks (Montecino).
Kairos
With the digital revolution, there is a growing number of writers using electronic media to create and publish their works (Kendall). Many writers in using electronic format expanded to include the format of the hypertext, which is interactive in nature. Writers are able to break away from the restrictions of paper (Kendall) and use content and features to create nonlinear poems that are associated with the medium. The hypertext also allows writers to experiment with elements like hyperlinks, images, sounds, and video (Kendall).
Audience
The audience plays an interactive role in the navigating and reading a hypertext poem. Astrid Ensslin argues hypertext poetry, which she terms hyperpoetry, is the "most creative and trans-artistic genre" out of all the hypertext genres because it offers the most "multisensory textual experience." She argues this because it incorporates "nomadism" and brings the reader away from the "verbal narrative” (Ennslin).
Hypertext Poetry is on the trend to become increasingly more popular in the upcoming years, as more and more writers use digital media to create and publish their works. The genre attracts users who want to be involved in the reading experience (Picot).
Content
Hypertext poems can include the traditional components of a poem which are: words, lines, and stanzas. Most are in the form of free verse. However, the genre also includes other multimedia components including: sounds, visual images, and three-dimensional letters, which makes it hard to identify most of the formal poetic conventions (Hypertext Poetry And Fiction).
Formal Features
Hypertext poems include "hypertextual features" which are mostly composed of hyperlinks that lead to a nonlinear reading of the text (Ensslin).
Hypertext poetry also includes hypermedia poetry. It moves beyond linking text to other websites, and adds features such as, "image, sound, video and animation" (Millan). An example of these features could be a sound "of a lawn mower" with words like "'mowing', 'stop', 'Sunday' and 'morning'" in succession across the readers screen (Hypertext Poetry And Fiction). These types of features, or multimedia elements, make it hard to link hypertext poetry to any formal poetry conventions (Hypertext Poetry And Fiction).
Ancestral Genres
One ancestral genre to hypertext poetry is the hypertext. Hypertexts allow a nonlinear reading of the text in which an audience is able to have an interactive experience with the text through the use of hyperlinks, which when clicked on, bring the reader to another website (Christopher Funkhouser). Hyperlinks, are often referred to as simply links, and utilize URLs, HTTPs, and HTMLs, (What are Hyperlinks?). Usually hyperlinks are in the form of highlighted or "underlined" (Montecino) words within the text, which when clicked bring the viewer to another website that provides an expansion on the concept (What are Hyperlinks?). Christopher Funkhouser expands on the audience's interactive role with the hypertext, and how based on his, "interest, engagement, and curiosity" he can control his navigation of the text.
Hypertext also functions as a collaborative text by blurring the roles of author and reader become (Keep). Hypertexts are seen as electronic texts but Christopher Keep argues that hypertexts are not restricted to "technology, content, or medium" (Keep).
Oral poetry shares the nonlinear shape of hypertext poetry. With each reading of an oral poem it changes shape, which relates to how hypertext poetry changes for each reader that reads the poem because of the nonlinear interactive navigation of the text (Ennslin).
Notable Examples of Hypertext Poetry
Penetration: Is a well-known example of a hypertext poem. The poem is from the collection The Seasons, which was published in 2000 by Eastgate. The collection consists of two poems: Dispossession and Penetration. The poem is set up so that the reader has choice to begin the poem through different perspectives. For example, by clicking on "daylight" the poem is in the perspective of the daughter (Di Rosario). Then the path of the poem is dictated by the what the reader chooses after each passage, by clicking on one of the series of choices below the passage (Di Rosario).
Low Probability of Racoons: Is a website set up by Peter Howard, a well known digital poet, for some of his works, some of which includes hyperlinks his own hypertext poetry.
Works Cited
006, www.poetrykit.org/pkmag/pkmag10/028.htm.
A Companion to Digital Literary Studies, digitalhumanities.org:3030/companion/view
docId=blackwell%2F9781405148641%2F9781405148641.xml&chunk.id=ss1-5
11&toc.depth=1&toc.id=ss1-5
11&brand=9781405148641_brand&query=hypertext%2Bpoetry.
After the Critique of Lyric | PMLA 123(1),
www.mlajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1632/pmla.2008.123.1.195.
“Canonizing Hypertext.” Google Books, books.google.com/books
id=G1YSBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25&dq=hypertext%2Bpoetry%2Bfeatures&
ource=bl&ots=YdVpqXh7RE&sig=BaKaM0MVSPi8.
COMPUTER GENERATED POETRY AND VISUAL ARTS,
www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~nxm/mscPoetry/survey/CGPoetry.htm#_Toc525619644.
Digital-Poetry - Poetry Beyond Text, www.poetrybeyondtext.org/digital-poetry.html.
Di Rosario, Giovanna. Electronic Poetry: Understanding Poetry in the Digital
Environment. Jyväskylä University Printing House. 2011.
“Electronic Poetry and Fiction.” Robert Kendall, wordcircuits.com/kendall/#!essays/pw1.htm.
“Free Verse: From A Poet's Glossary.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, 21 June 2016,
www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/free-verse-poets-glossary.
“Free Verse.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation,
www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/free-verse.
HYPERTEXT POETRY AND FICTION,
course1.winona.edu/geddy/Eng353/hypertext_poetry_and_fiction.htm.
“Ideas of Space in Contemporary Poetry.” Google Books, books.google.com/books
id=YvnMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA180&lpg=PA180&dq=low%2Bprobability%2Bof%2Braccoons
2Bpeter%2Bhoward&source=bl&ots=JjlF_SNmVp&sig=OxaT6bsKU2W0o6XwjXD22XtjLDE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjs27a8y7jZAhXsdN8KHYbdDswQ6AEIRjAF#v=onepage&q=low%20probability%20of%20raccoons%20peter%20howard&f=false.