A reversible poem, also called a palindrome poem or a reverso poem, is a poem that can be read both forwards and backwards, with a different meaning in each direction, like this:
Initial order | Reversed order |
---|---|
The world is doomed I cannot believe that We can save the world |
We can save the world I cannot believe that The world is doomed |
Reversible poems, called hui-wen shih poems, were a Classical Chinese artform. The most famous poet using this style was the 4th-century poet Su Hui, who wrote an untitled poem now called "Star Gauge" (Chinese: 璇璣圖; pinyin: xuán jī tú).[1] This poem contains 841 characters in a square grid that can be read backwards, forwards, and diagonally, with new and sometimes contradictory meanings in each direction.[2] Reversible poems in Chinese may depend not only on the words themselves, but also on the tone to produce a sense of poetry.[3] Beginning in the 1920s, punctuation (which is uncommon in Chinese) was sometimes added to clarify Chinese palindromic poems.[3]
English-speaking poets such as Marilyn Singer and Brian Bilston have also published reversible poems.[4][5][6]
Reversible poems are sometimes taught to students as a way of showing differing perspectives within the same words.[7] In English, omitting punctuation and placing line breaks strategically are useful writing techniques for creating a reversible poem.[5]