Gallery¶
158 catalogued · 133 implementable · 127 implemented · 127 validated · 25 not mechanically checkable
Every example below is a golden fixture the test suite enforces, so nothing on these pages can drift from what the code actually does.
letter¶
Procedures operating on individual characters.
| Procedure | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Abecedarian | validated | Ancient Hebrew acrostic psalms; Lamentations |
| Acrostic | validated | Lewis Carroll, A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky (1871) |
| Alphabetical sentence | validated | Word Ways, the Journal of Recreational Linguistics (1968 onwards) |
| Antigram | validated | Word Ways, the Journal of Recreational Linguistics (1968 onwards) |
| Beau présent | validated | Georges Perec and Jacques Roubaud, in Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Belle absente | validated | Georges Perec, in Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Bivocalic | validated | Word Ways, the Journal of Recreational Linguistics (1968 onwards) |
| Letter-exchange | validated | Georg Philipp Harsdörffer, Deliciae Physico-Mathematicae (Erquickstunden), part two, Nürnberg 1651, XIV. Theil, die IV. Aufgabe, pp. 513-515 |
| Calculator word | validated | Michael Quinion, World Wide Words, "Beghilos" (2009); the practice dates to pocket LED calculators of the 1970s |
| Charade | validated | Traditional; a staple of 18th-century French and English parlour verse |
| Chronogram | validated | Traditional; widespread in Latin inscriptions from the 15th century |
| Consonantal lipogram | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Double acrostic | validated | Traditional; described in the Renaissance rhetorical handbooks |
| Eodermdrome | validated | Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation (1965) |
| Hemeling's letter-exchange | validated | Johann Hemeling, Arithmetische Letter- oder BuchstabWechslung (1653); read here through Andreas B. Kilcher, mathesis und poiesis (Fink, 2003), p. 376 |
| Heterogram | validated | Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation (1965) |
| Homoteleuton | validated | Traditional; a classical rhetorical figure described by Quintilian |
| Kangaroo word | validated | Word Ways, the Journal of Recreational Linguistics (1968 onwards) |
| Letter bank | validated | Word Ways, the Journal of Recreational Linguistics (1968 onwards) |
| Lipogram | validated | Georges Perec, La Disparition (1969) |
| Liponym | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Monoconsonantal | validated | Word Ways, the Journal of Recreational Linguistics (1968 onwards) |
| Palindrome | validated | Attributed to Sotades of Maroneia (3rd century BC); revived by Oulipo |
| Pangram | validated | Traditional; catalogued in Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Pangrammatic lipogram | validated | Word Ways, the Journal of Recreational Linguistics (1968 onwards) |
| Pangrammatic window | validated | Word Ways, the Journal of Recreational Linguistics (1968 onwards) |
| Paragram | validated | Traditional; a classical rhetorical figure |
| Prisoner's constraint | validated | Georges Perec, in Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Reverse snowball | validated | Oulipo, La Littérature potentielle (1973), as fonte de neige |
| Semordnilap | validated | Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation (1965) |
| Serial lipogram | validated | Attributed to Tryphiodorus, whose Odyssey in 24 books each omitted one letter; excerpted by Jean Paul in 1783 (Exzerpte, Fasz. IIa vol. 2, IIa-02-1783-0130) |
| Snowball | validated | Ausonius, Technopaegnion (4th century); named in Oulipo, La Littérature potentielle (1973) |
| Supervocalic | validated | Word Ways, the Journal of Recreational Linguistics (1968 onwards) |
| Tautogram | validated | Hucbald of Saint-Amand, Ecloga de Calvis (c. 890) |
| Tautonym | validated | Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation (1965) |
| Telestich | validated | George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie (1589) |
| Transposal | validated | Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation (1965) |
| Univocalic | validated | C. C. Bombaugh, Gleanings for the Curious from the Harvest-Fields of Literature (1867) |
| Word square | validated | Traditional; the Sator square is attested at Pompeii before 79 AD |
word¶
Procedures operating on whole words, usually by way of a lexicon.
| Procedure | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Anagram | validated | Attributed to Lycophron (3rd century BC); systematised by Oulipo |
| Antonymic substitution | catalogued | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Canada Dry | catalogued | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Chimera | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Definitional expansion | validated | Marcel Bénabou and Georges Perec, littérature définitionnelle (1966) |
| Definitional literature | validated | Marcel Bénabou and Georges Perec, littérature définitionnelle (1966) |
| Haikuization | validated | Oulipo, La Littérature potentielle (1973) |
| Homoconsonantism | validated | Jacques Roubaud, in Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Homovocalism | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Mathews's algorithm | validated | Harry Mathews, in Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Melting text | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Monosyllabic prose | validated | Traditional; a standing exercise in English rhetorical instruction |
| Multiple constraint | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| N+7 | validated | Jean Lescure, in Oulipo, La Littérature potentielle (1973) |
| Paronomasia | validated | George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie (1589) |
| Perverb | catalogued | Harry Mathews, in Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Portmanteau | validated | Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass (1871) |
| S+7 | validated | Oulipo, La Littérature potentielle (1973) |
| Slenderizing | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Snowball sentence | validated | Word Ways, the Journal of Recreational Linguistics (1968 onwards) |
| Spoonerism | validated | Named for William Archibald Spooner; documented from the 1890s |
| Synonymic substitution | catalogued | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Witz | catalogued | Jean Paul, Vorschule der Ästhetik (1804), on Witz as the disguised priest who marries every pair |
| Word ladder | validated | Lewis Carroll, Doublets, a Word Puzzle (1879) |
syntax¶
Procedures operating on sentence and clause structure.
| Procedure | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Anaphora | validated | Traditional; a classical rhetorical figure |
| Epistrophe | validated | Traditional; a classical rhetorical figure |
| Homosyntaxism | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Larding | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Sentence length constraint | validated | Traditional; standard in style manuals and readability work |
| Single sentence | validated | Traditional; the form of Gertrude Stein's and Thomas Bernhard's long prose |
| Tmesis | validated | Traditional; a classical rhetorical figure |
| Verbless prose | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
form¶
Metre, rhyme and stanza.
| Procedure | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Alcaic stanza | validated | Traditional; the stanza of Alcaeus, 6th century BC |
| Alexandrine | validated | French classical prosody; Jean Racine |
| Alliterative verse | validated | Traditional; the metre of Beowulf and the Old Norse Eddas |
| Assonance constraint | validated | Traditional; the binding device of Old French and Spanish epic |
| Ballade | validated | Traditional; the form of François Villon's Grand Testament (1461) |
| Blank verse | validated | Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, translation of the Aeneid (1554) |
| Cinquain | validated | Adelaide Crapsey, Verse (1915) |
| Clerihew | validated | Edmund Clerihew Bentley, Biography for Beginners (1905) |
| Curtal sonnet | validated | Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems (1918) |
| Dactylic hexameter | validated | Traditional; the metre of Homer and Virgil |
| Double dactyl | validated | Anthony Hecht and Paul Pascal, Jiggery-Pokery (1966) |
| Elegiac couplet | validated | Traditional; classical Greek and Latin elegy |
| Englyn | validated | Traditional; Welsh strict-metre poetry |
| Ghazal | validated | Traditional; classical Persian and Urdu poetry |
| Haibun | validated | Matsuo Bashō, Oku no Hosomichi (1702) |
| Haiku | validated | Matsuo Bashō (17th century); named as haiku by Masaoka Shiki (1892) |
| Hendecasyllable | validated | Traditional; classical Latin and Italian prosody |
| Heroic couplet | validated | Traditional; the dominant English verse form of the 17th and 18th centuries |
| Iambic pentameter | validated | Traditional; the dominant English metre since Chaucer |
| Limerick | validated | Traditional; popularised by Edward Lear, A Book of Nonsense (1846) |
| Ottava rima | validated | Traditional; Giovanni Boccaccio's Teseida (c. 1340) |
| Pantoum | validated | Traditional; adapted into French from the Malay pantun in the 19th century |
| Petrarchan sonnet | validated | Francesco Petrarca, Canzoniere (14th century) |
| Quenina | validated | Raymond Queneau and Jacques Roubaud, in Oulipo, La Littérature potentielle (1973) |
| Renga | validated | Traditional; Japanese linked verse, formalised by the 13th century |
| Rhyme royal | validated | Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1385) |
| Rhyme scheme | validated | Traditional prosody |
| Rondeau | validated | Traditional; French fixed form of the 14th and 15th centuries |
| Sapphic stanza | validated | Traditional; the stanza of Sappho, 7th century BC |
| Senryū | validated | Named for Karai Senryū, 18th-century Japan |
| Sestina | validated | Attributed to Arnaut Daniel, 12th century; the attribution is conventional |
| Shakespearean sonnet | validated | William Shakespeare, Sonnets (1609) |
| Sonnet | validated | Giacomo da Lentini, Sicilian School (c. 1230) |
| Spenserian stanza | validated | Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1590) |
| Syllable count | validated | Traditional prosody |
| Tanka | validated | Traditional; classical Japanese court poetry |
| Terza rima | validated | Dante Alighieri, Commedia (c. 1320) |
| Triolet | validated | Traditional; French fixed form of the 13th century |
| Trochaic tetrameter | validated | Traditional; the metre of the Kalevala and of Hiawatha |
| Villanelle | validated | Traditional; fixed in its modern shape by Jean Passerat (1606) |
permutation¶
Reordering a fixed set of parts.
| Procedure | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Ars combinatoria | catalogued | Ramon Llull, Ars Generalis Ultima (1305); named as such by Leibniz (1666) |
| Hundred thousand billion poems | validated | Raymond Queneau, Cent mille milliards de poèmes (1961) |
| Combinatorial sonnet | catalogued | Oulipo, La Littérature potentielle (1973) |
| Denckring | validated | Georg Philipp Harsdörffer, Deliciae Physico-Mathematicae (Erquickstunden), part two, Nürnberg 1651, p. 517 — not the Poetischer Trichter, where it is often placed |
| Line permutation | catalogued | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Llullian figure | validated | Ramon Llull, Ars Generalis Ultima (1305) |
| Poetry automat | validated | Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Einladung zu einem Poesie-Automaten (conceived 1974); machine realised for Lyrik am Lech, Landsberg am Lech, 2000 |
| Proteus verse | validated | Julius Caesar Scaliger, Poetices libri septem (1561) |
| Stanza permutation | catalogued | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Wechselsatz | validated | Quirinus Kuhlmann, Der Wechsel Menschlicher Sachen (1671) |
| Word permutation | catalogued | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
procedural¶
A process applied to source material.
| Procedure | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Arca musarithmica | validated | Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia Universalis (Rome, 1650), book VIII |
| Blackout poetry | catalogued | Traditional; a modern popular practice with no single originator |
| Cento | catalogued | Traditional; Ausonius, Cento Nuptialis, 4th century |
| Chance operation | catalogued | John Cage, Silence (1961) |
| Column reading | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Cut-up | validated | Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs, Minutes to Go (1960) |
| Dada poem | catalogued | Tristan Tzara, Pour faire un poème dadaïste (1920) |
| Diastic reading | validated | Jackson Mac Low, Stanzas for Iris Lezak (1972) |
| Erasure | catalogued | Tom Phillips, A Humument (1970) |
| Every nth word | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Fold-in | validated | William S. Burroughs, The Third Mind (1978) |
| Found poem | catalogued | Traditional; a modern practice with no single originator |
| Idea-dicing | validated | Jean Paul, notebook titled Ideenwürfeln, February 1795 (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Nachl. Jean Paul, Fasz. IX, Konv. 7); the practice reconstructed from the excerpt books, and the Witz it serves described in the Vorschule der Ästhetik (1804) |
| Mesostic | validated | John Cage, Writing Through Finnegans Wake (1978) |
| Oracle reading | catalogued | Traditional; the practice of the sortes Virgilianae |
| Palimpsest | catalogued | Traditional; the practice of reused medieval manuscript vellum |
| Recombination | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Strikethrough | catalogued | Traditional; a modern typographic practice |
| Text folding | validated | William S. Burroughs, The Third Mind (1978) |
translation¶
Mapping one text onto another.
| Procedure | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Antonymic translation | catalogued | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Back translation | catalogued | Traditional; a standing exercise in translation studies |
| Definitional translation | catalogued | Marcel Bénabou and Georges Perec, littérature définitionnelle (1966) |
| Homophonic translation | catalogued | Louis Zukofsky and Celia Zukofsky, Catullus (1969) |
| Intralingual translation | catalogued | Roman Jakobson, On Linguistic Aspects of Translation (1959) |
| Lipogrammatic translation | validated | Gilbert Adair's A Void (1994), translating Perec's La Disparition |
| Pasigraphy | validated | Athanasius Kircher, Polygraphia Nova et Universalis ex combinatoria arte detecta (Rome, 1663), book I |
| Transduction | catalogued | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Univocalic translation | validated | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
visual¶
The shape of the text on the page.
| Procedure | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Boustrophedon | validated | Traditional; archaic Greek inscriptions |
| Calligram | catalogued | Guillaume Apollinaire, Calligrammes (1918) |
| Concrete poetry | catalogued | Eugen Gomringer, Konstellationen (1953) |
| Grid poem | catalogued | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Pattern poem | catalogued | Simmias of Rhodes, 4th century BC; revived by George Herbert (1633) |
| Sator square | validated | Traditional; attested at Pompeii before 79 AD |
| Spatial poem | catalogued | Oulipo, Atlas de littérature potentielle (1981) |
| Typewriter poem | catalogued | Traditional; a modern practice associated with concrete poetry |