Triptych · Apollinaire
Heart, Crown and Mirror, the Dove, It's Raining
The three best loved calligrams, in 50x70 cm, to hang side by side: love, war and rain.
3 prints · 50x70 cm (20x28 in)
See the triptych
Poetry · Guillaume Apollinaire · 1918
Calligram Definition and Apollinaire's Famous Examples
A poem whose letters draw what it says: rain falls in slanted lines, the Eiffel Tower rises in words, a heart turns over like a flame. The definition, the history, the examples worth knowing and how to read them.
Read the definition
Heure d'été edition
It's Raining, the most studied calligram
Five lines of letters falling at a slant across a wide cream ground, and the title in italics at the very bottom, like a puddle. From afar, it is a shower; up close, you read the lines letter by letter. Printed on thick matte eco-friendly paper.
- 30x40 cm12x16 in
- 40x50 cm16x20 in
- 50x70 cm20x28 in
Printed and shipped from a studio near you: most orders arrive in 5 business days.
What is a calligram?
A calligram is a text arranged on the page so that it forms a picture, and the picture shows what the text says. You look at it before you read it, then you read it to understand what you saw.
The word was coined by Guillaume Apollinaire for his collection Calligrammes, published on April 15, 1918, by the Mercure de France. It blends calligraphy and ideogram, and goes back to the Greek kallos, beauty, and gramma, letter: beautiful writing.
The difference from an ordinary poem fits in one sentence: in a poem, the shape is the shape of the lines; in a calligram, the shape is a picture, and it is part of the meaning.
Who invented the calligram?
Apollinaire invented the word, not the idea. In the 4th century BC, the Greek poet Simmias of Rhodes was already shaping his verses as wings, an axe or an egg. In the 9th century, Rabanus Maurus composed a book of picture-poems in praise of the Cross; in the 16th, Rabelais drew the "divine bottle" in words in his Fifth Book.
1914
June 15 · Les Soirées de Paris
Ocean-Letter, the first "lyrical ideogram"
Ocean-Letter, the first "lyrical ideogram"
What Apollinaire invented was the modern calligram. On June 15, 1914, he published Lettre-Océan (Ocean-Letter) in his review Les Soirées de Paris: words radiating from a center, like the waves of the wireless telegraph that the Eiffel Tower sent out to the world. He then called these poems "lyrical ideograms" and was preparing a collection with a telling title, Et moi aussi je suis peintre (And I Too Am a Painter), planned for August 1914. The war prevented it: the book would become Calligrammes, four years later.
Ocean-Letter · 1914
What does the first modern calligram look like?
Like a sun made of words, or an antenna sending out a signal. The sentences leave the center like waves and are read by turning your head, or the sheet. It is already all of Apollinaire: the modernity of the telegraph and poetry in the same gesture.
As a print, it is the most graphic calligram in the series: it holds a wall by its shape alone, even for someone who does not read French.
See Ocean-Letter as a print · 30x40, 40x50 or 50x70 cm
What are Apollinaire's most famous calligrams?
The collection Calligrammes, subtitled Poems of Peace and War (1913-1916), has six sections. The best known calligrams are in the first two:
- It's Raining (Il pleut, "Ondes"): "Il pleut des voix de femmes comme si elles étaient mortes même dans le souvenir", it's raining women's voices as if they had died even in memory, in lines that fall. The one most studied in French schools.
- The Stabbed Dove and the Fountain (La Colombe poignardée et le jet d'eau, "Étendards"): a dove made of the first names of women he loved, above a fountain where the friends gone to war are mourned.
- The Eiffel Tower, in 2e Canonnier conducteur ("Étendards"): "Salut monde dont je suis la langue éloquente que sa bouche ô Paris tire et tirera toujours aux Allemands", hello world, of which I am the eloquent tongue that your mouth, O Paris, sticks out and always will at the Germans. The tower sticks its tongue out at the enemy.
- The Tie and the Watch (La Cravate et la montre) and Heart, Crown and Mirror (Cœur couronne et miroir, "Ondes"): everyday objects drawn in sentences.
- Ocean-Letter (Lettre-Océan, "Ondes") and The Mandolin, the Carnation and the Bamboo (La Mandoline, l'œillet et le bambou, "Étendards").
How do you read a calligram?
In three steps: look, read, connect.
1
Look at the shape
Before deciphering a single word, name what you see: rain, a tower, a dove. That is the poem's silent title.
2
Read along the drawing
It's Raining reads from top to bottom, line by line, the way you follow a drop. The Eiffel Tower reads from the tip down to the base. The Tie and the Watch reads object by object, and the hours of the watch turn with the dial.
3
Connect shape and meaning
Ask why this text took this shape: the rain says melancholy, the tower says Paris holding firm, the upside-down heart says a burning love. That is where the calligram becomes a poem.
Why does the Eiffel Tower stick its tongue out?
Because the calligram was written in 1915, in the middle of the war, by a poet who had volunteered to fight. The tower reads from the tip down: "Salut monde dont je suis la langue éloquente que sa bouche ô Paris tire et tirera toujours aux Allemands". The monument becomes a tongue, in both senses of the word in French: the one you speak and the one you stick out.
It is the perfect example of the third reading rule: the shape does not illustrate the text, it completes it. And on a wall, it is the calligram that says Paris without the postcard.
See the Eiffel Tower as a print · 30x40, 40x50 or 50x70 cm
How do you make a calligram?
Choose an object connected to your text: a raindrop for a sad poem, a heart for a declaration. Trace its outline very lightly in pencil. Write the text along the lines, packing the letters tight in the curves and spacing them out on the straights. Erase the outline.
Two rules from Apollinaire: a simple shape you can recognize from across the room, and a short text you can read in one breath. Beyond three objects, as in The Mandolin, the Carnation and the Bamboo, the drawing gets blurred.
See The Mandolin as a print · 30x40, 40x50 or 50x70 cm
"Et moi aussi je suis peintre"Guillaume Apollinaire · planned title for his calligrams · 1914
And I too am a painter
Why does a calligram make beautiful wall art?
Because it reads at two distances. From afar, it is a picture: rain, a heart, a tower, legible from the sofa. Up close, it is a poem, which you discover as you step in. Few prints offer both.
The calligram loves a large format: in 50x70 cm (20x28 in), every letter of It's Raining stands out and the rain fills the whole wall. In 30x40 cm (12x16 in), it holds an entryway or a study. And it goes with all poetic decor, the kind Pinterest calls poetcore.
Which calligrams to hang together?
Three calligrams side by side make a wall that reads like a page of the collection. And for those who want to step away from the classics, a calligram composed by the studio.
Studio creation
Le Chat
An original calligram by the studio, in the spirit of Apollinaire: a seated cat, drawn in black letters, its tail curled into a sentence.
30x40, 40x50 or 50x70 cm
See the print
Heure d'été edition
Food for eyes & soul.
See the calligramsFrequently asked questions
What is a calligram?
A poem whose letters are arranged to form a drawing, and the drawing shows what the text says: rain, a tower, a heart. You look at it before you read it.
Who invented the calligram?
The word was coined by Guillaume Apollinaire, who gave it to his collection Calligrammes, published in 1918. The idea is much older: Simmias of Rhodes was already drawing with his verses in the 4th century BC.
What is Apollinaire's most famous calligram?
It's Raining (Il pleut), where the lines fall at a slant like rain, followed by the Eiffel Tower of 2e Canonnier conducteur and The Stabbed Dove and the Fountain. All three are in the collection Calligrammes.
How do you make a calligram?
Choose a simple shape connected to the text, trace its outline in pencil, write the text along the lines, packing the letters tight in the curves, then erase the outline. A short text reads best.
When was Calligrammes published?
On April 15, 1918, by the Mercure de France, under the title Calligrammes, poèmes de la paix et de la guerre (1913-1916). Apollinaire died a few months later, on November 9, 1918.
A poem you see before you read it, named by Apollinaire in 1918, and still holding a wall a century later.
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