Number Poetry

If it suits you, you may refer to Number Poetry as "Quantitative Poetics". We will stick with the pedestrian "Number Poetry" to include many things. 

Number Poetry is recommended as a Metaform, to combine with another form.

A Number Poem is any text in the which the numbers of letters, words, lines, stanzas, and/or paragraphs are determined before writing begins.

This includes the Oulipo's Snowball. in which each line is longer than the previous line, and the Melting Snowball, in which each line is smaller than the preceding line. You can combine these two shapes to make Diamond Poems or Hourglass Poems. Traditionally, a poem in which the number of syllables per word increases steadily on every line is known as Rhopalic Verse.

Source

Dominique Fitzpatrick-O'Dinn, Oulipo (Snowball, Melting Snowball)

Examples

• Lyn Hejinian: My Life (uses the author's age, and is revised as she ages)
• Ron Silliman: Tjanting (uses the Fibanacci Sequence)
• Dirk Stratton: Purple Splice (postcard poem uses pi)
• Max Winchester: How to Vote (50 poems for the US)

Works that use this form

• Before
• Birthday 29
• But
• Foolish
• Formal Poetry Manifesto
• Garret Duet
• Haicoup
• Missed the Bus to Work Again
• Newspoem 18 January 2001: Czech TV (for Simon Kos)
• Newspoem 2 June 2001: C Can Cause Cancer
• Newspoem 23 March 1998: Mayor Giuliani Outlaws Painting, Arrests Artists
• POEM FOR MONEY: I Seen the Stylus and the Damage Done
• Poetry Class
• Separation of Degrees
• The Poor Get More Poor
• The Terror
• Victory Speech
• [number poetry]
• [syllable poetry]

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