Opatianus’s work inspired Hrabanus Maurus (c 784-856), Archbishop of Mainz, a Carolingian poet and theologian. His famous work, In Praise of the Holy Cross was the first printed figure poem which was published in 1503.
Visual poetry, as is obvious from the nomenclature, is the arrangement of text,
images and symbols to convey the intended message of the work. It speaks silently. It is often referred to as the concrete poetry, but views differ on this issue. Concrete poetry is clearly recognizable as poetry, it has purely typographic elements. visual poetry is dependent on the texts on a minimal scale. Texts relate to visual function only. Non-text imagery has the main role.
“For various reasons, the critical response to visual poetry over the years has been disappointing. Although the genre has a long and varied history, from the technopaegnia, of the ancient Greeks to the latest experiments with concrete poetry, it has received relatively little attention until recently.”(Neohelicon, 1990)
When we mention technopaegnia, in the renaissance, Fortunius Licetus (1577-164) figures first. He was an Italian humanist. He edited many volumes on the classical writers and his contemporary, a Hungarian writer. Albert Molnar (1574-1634) translated Psalms in Hungarian language. His work, Lusus poetici, Games of the poets (1614), an anthology of Latin technopaegnia is well-known in this genre.
A poem is supposed to be ‘the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.’ The visual poem is the outward manifestation of the joyous expression of the inner world of the poet. It pictures the trials, tribulations, the joy, the duty and beauty of life through the various forms and moods of Nature.