A reversible poem, also called a

palindrome A palindrome (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpæl.ɪn.droʊm/) is a word, palindromic number, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date "Twosday, 02/02/2020" and th ...

poem or a reverso poem, is a

poem Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

that can be read both forwards and backwards, with a different meaning in each direction, like this: 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 The ''Star Gauge'' ( zh, c= 璇璣圖, p='' xuán jī tú''), or translated as "the armillary sphere chart", is the posthumous title given to a 4th-century Chinese language, Chinese poem written by the Sixteen Kingdoms poet Su Hui (poet), Su Hui ...

" (). 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 Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...

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 Marilyn Singer (born 3 October 1948) is an author of children's books in a wide variety of genres, including fiction and non-fiction picture books, juvenile novels and mysteries, young adult fantasies, and poetry. Some of her poems are written as ...

and

Brian Bilston Paul Millicheap (born 14 June 1970), who writes as Brian Bilston, is a British poet and author. Biography Born in Birmingham, England, he studied at the University of Wales, Swansea, before entering the publishing industry as a marketing manag ...

have also published reversible poems. Reversible poems are sometimes taught to students as a way of showing differing

perspectives Perspective may refer to: Vision and mathematics * Perspectivity, the formation of an image in a picture plane of a scene viewed from a fixed point, and its modeling in geometry ** Perspective (graphical), representing the effects of visual persp ...

within the same words. In English, omitting punctuation and placing line breaks strategically are useful writing techniques for creating a reversible poem.

References

Poetic forms Chinese poetry {{poetry-stub

See also

References