Girondo: the Materialisation of Rhythm

Abstract

It is a commonplace of criticism to point out that Oliverio Girondo is a visual poet. This is undoubtedly an irrefutable conclusion, which can be seen in the poet's paintings and in the very composition of the book-object Veinte poemas para ser leídos en el tranvía (Twenty Poems to be Read on the Tram). However, in this article we explore a supplementary aspect, which becomes evident in the analysis of the famous calligram “Espantapájaros” (“Scarecrow”). It is a spatialisation of rhythm. Girondo’s calligram simulates a unified body in iconic figuration, but dismembered when expressed as a poem. As Henri Meschonnic points out, calligrams are “dynamic vectorisations that graphically actualise the saying”. The meaning of “Scarecrow” in typography consists of a spatialisation that is evident to the naked eye, but it also has a material, ideogrammatic rhythmicity, situated between oral rhythm and typographic rhythm. The reading of the poems of En la masmédula and the subsequent oralisation in Girondo’s own recordings in the 1960s reinforce this rhythmic dimension of his poetics. The oralisation of En la masmédula is not a mere sound version, but a culminating act: the final materialisation of the oral rhythm in the voice, derived from a spatialisation of rhythm. here is no meaning in this materialistic diction of rhythm but significance: meaning in its sensory unfolding and space in its prosodic depth. The poem as a unity of meaning, and not the verse. That would be the aim of Girondo’s poetic project: to concretise the materialisation of rhythm in the double spatial and temporal dimension.