An underestimated genre:: visual poetry of the 17th century

Visual poetry is best known as a genre of the 20(th) century, yet in the 17(th) century this genre enjoyed an unprecedented blossoming that has not been equaled since. In general, the secondary literature treats Baroque picture poetry with neglect, and as a result, while visual poetry is acknowledged as a phenomenon, the figural entities are scarcely ever read as lyrical texts. There remains a tenacious prejudice that Baroque picture poems are texts of scant literary merit. The problematic of picture poetry derives in principle from its multi-layered complexity, which can only be grasped by means of deepened analysis adequate to the genre's unique characteristics, or, to be precise, analysis incorporating perspectives of media theory and attentive to cultural historical context. This paper will present such an analysis of a sample text.