French Tickler?
Poem #115 - Fun with Poetic Form Series - Oulipo, Concrete or Both?
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Copyright ©️ 2026, David Angel, All Rights Reserved
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Oulipo (short for Ouvroir de littérature potentielle, meaning “Workshop of Potential Literature”) is a French literary movement founded in 1960.
It was created by:
• Raymond Queneau
• François Le Lionnais
What makes Oulipo different?
Oulipo writers deliberately use formal constraints to generate new kinds of literature. Instead of seeing rules as restrictive, they treat them as engines of creativity.
Examples of constraints:
• Writing a novel without using a particular letter (a lipogram)
• Following mathematical patterns
• Using permutation structures
• Writing according to chess moves or combinatorics
Famous Oulipians
• Georges Perec — wrote A Void, a novel without the letter “e.”
• Italo Calvino) — author of If on a winter’s night a traveler
• Jacques Roubaud
Core idea
Oulipo explores “potential literature” — texts that could exist if certain structural systems are applied. Many members were fascinated by mathematics, combinatorics, and game theory.
Given your interest in experimental poetry, Oulipo is basically the high church of rule-bound weirdness.
Oulipo and concrete poetry are related in spirit, but they are not the same movement and developed independently.
The Core Difference
• Oulipo focuses on formal constraints — hidden or structural rules (mathematical patterns, lipograms, permutations).
• Concrete poetry focuses on visual form — the physical arrangement of words on the page as part of the poem’s meaning.
In short:
• Oulipo = structural/mathematical constraint.
• Concrete poetry = spatial/visual construction.
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Where They Overlap
Both movements:
• Treat language as material.
• Emphasize form over lyrical self-expression.
• Often feel playful, procedural, and anti-Romantic.
• Resist traditional narrative flow.
A concrete poem may shape words into a visual object (like a tree or a cross).
An Oulipo text may obey a combinatorial or linguistic rule the reader doesn’t initially see.
Sometimes, a work can be both — for example, if a poem uses a strict mathematical constraint and arranges the text visually.
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Historical Context
Concrete poetry emerged in the 1950s in Brazil and Europe (associated with figures like Eugen Gomringer and the Brazilian Noigandres group).
Oulipo was founded in 1960 in France by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais.
They share a modernist/postwar experimental ethos but arose from different intellectual streams:
• Concrete poetry → visual arts and typography
• Oulipo → mathematics, combinatorics, and structuralism
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A Deeper Distinction
Concrete poetry often makes meaning visible.
Oulipo often makes meaning inevitable through constraint.
Concrete poetry says: “Look at the page.”
Oulipo says: “Look at the rule.”
Given your interest in strange form-driven poetry, you probably lean closer to Oulipo’s constraint logic than to pure visual poetics — though your fragmentation instincts flirt with both.
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Cactustograph by David Angel
The Fun with Poetic Form Series:
#1 When Her Poetry is Good
#2 Bad, Poetry, Society,
#3 Hard Pass on Poetry Contests
#4 Living Yesterday
#5 When Poetry Inspires Rhyme
#6 Appetence for Poetry
#7 Free Poetry & Worth Every Cent
#8 Patchwork Poetry
#9 First Stab at a Senryū
#10 Of the Ether
#11 When Allegory Inspires Rhyme
#12 On Poetic Form and the Value of Time
#13 Limerick
#14 Better than God
#15 Professor of Poetry
#16 A Mouthful of Hendecasyllables
#17 Write to Win
#18 The Ontology of Poetry
#19 "Express Dick," Learn Siri!
#20 Placento - the "Cento"
#21 The Slave of Poetic Duty
#22 Birth of the "Lowku"
#23 Why Dimeter has Four Syllables per Line
#24 They're Just Dead Leaves - the Villanelle
# 25 (a-e) - the Haiku
Breakup Haikus
Om Haiku
Haiku Contest - Subject: The Future
Alpha-Bit "Haikus"
Haikus of Hope
#26 Short Poet Society - Short Poets
#27 I Mean Like Fortune Cookies Sonnet
#28 (a-d) - the Ekphrastic poem -
Hidden Meaning
Speak No Evil’s All Too Short Love Affair with See No Evil’s Wife
The Rift Between the Wall
Did the Princess Lose her Pet?
#29 (a-e) - Love Lost Series -
a. Limerick b. Haiku c. Sijo d. Sonnet e. Blank verse
#30 Egghead "Poetry"
#31 Blunt Instruments - On words
#32 On Gleaning Meaning from a Poem and The Four Questions
# 33 The Lune
#34 The Evil Genie Said "Choose!"
# 35 Feather and Chain - The "Decrescendo"
# 36 Walkin' the DOGE - Political Satire
#37 The Second Coming? - Rap
# 38 Prosody for Dum-dums
# 39 The ABCs of Gloating - The Rhyme Scheme
#40 Fluckmeter Sonnet
#41 Breaking the Tomatometer
# 42 Erasing Erasure Eyewash
# 43 The Trump FUKKU
# 44 Can't Stop Rimming
# 45 Sell No Rhyme Before It's Time - The Slant Rhyme
# 46 The Free Verse Curse - Vers Libre
# 47 Postmark BFE - The Prompt
# 48 Soft Spot for Animals - On Inspiration
# 49 Pita and Circuses - Satire
# 50 The Vomitcratic Party - Free Verse
#51 Wood You Like More "Haikus?" - The "Funku"
# 52 - A Good Geek'll Do That - Write it down or lose it!
# 53 - Aerodynamics of Flight - Evolution of a Poem
#54 - London Bridge is Falling Down Haiku - The Renga
#55 - The Desaltery - Poetic License
#56 - Dumbwasteoftimedoh - The Rondeau
#57 - Yes It Does! - The Slant Rhyme
#58 - Temptation Sonnet - The Angelspearean Sonnet
#59 - A Poet Worth Her Salt - Write Only from the Heart
# 60 - The Enquirer - Literary Criticism for English Minors
# 61 - Storge: Not Exactly My Plan - The Acrostic Poem
# 62 - Two Wings to Fly - The Parable
# 63 - Rimshot - Satire vs. Parody
# 64 - Night School of the Fine Art - Alliteration
# 65 - A Lune to Make You Swoon
# 66 - Feeling Like a Dead Duck - Slant Rhyme for the Third Time
#67 - AABBA - More Pathetic Limericks
#68 - Prayer Time! - The Dizain
#69 - Ain't Got that Shwing - The Free Verse Limerick
#70 - Worse than Light Verse - Death by Gingivitis
#71 - LimTrumpericks - Fit for a King! A New Limerick Form is Born
#72 - Good & Hard - The Homophone
# 73 - Countdown to Zoharanistan: A Hendecasyllabic Lament
#74 - The Drunku
#75 - Fifty-two Times Easier - The Prime 1 is Born!
# 76 - Cracking / the Prime 1 Code
#77 - Eleven Places Not to Fly to Because (Hendecasyllabic fun)
#78 - Old Resentments Never Die, They Just Fade Away - Free Association
# 79 - Happy National Nookie Day, Everyone! - Finding Your Groove
#80 - Hey Good Buddy, Handle's "Messiah" - The Fourteener
#81 - Dueling Diets Sonnet - The Hybrid Sonnet
#82 - What's New... - The Liposong
#83 - Sydney - The Triolet
# 84 - One More Week of Spring - Another Triolet
# 85 - Three Rehashed Villanesques
#86 - Third Night Sestina
#87 - Jesus, Enough Enjambments Already!
#88 - Twisted Tie Rods - two more triolets
#89 - Worst Wights in the Whole Wide World - Anaphora, Alliteration & Aardvark Words
#90 - The Scrounge - The "DUOlet"
#91 - "How Did You Escape Trump, Supreme Leader?" "I Ran" - The Twelve to One
#92 - Don't Disdain Me Dizain - Another Dizain, Yawn
#93 - Wet Horse - The Caesura
#94 - But We Can't Afford to Fly to Florida, Hon! - Why published formats of the same famous poem are so different
#95 - 17 Days 'til Groundhog's Day -Long Winter Calls for Long Lines
#96 - Why I Write Like This - Acrostic Amusement
#97 - It Will Always Be the Fault of Minnesota Politicians & Media Scum - A Haiku variant - the Noemku
#98 - Bring a Gun to a Gun Fight? - The Terza Rima
# 99 - My Little Slice of Americana - The Quatrain
#100 - God of Fertility - Anaphoric Acrostic Fun!
#101 - Still Hope - AI ain't No Substitute for the HUMAN Writer (Yet?)
# 102 - X-ed Out - The Concrete Poem
# 103 - Risk Off - The Pantoum
# 104 - Reach Around - Metaphor
# 105 - Teach Us a Cool Rhyme Scheme, Abba! - The Envelope Rhyme
#106 - Pushing the Envelope - ABBA
#107 - Pantomb Pantoum - Power of Repetition
#108 - Poetry Goddess Unadorned - Constrained Form
#109 - Michicken Winter - The Visual Poem
#110 - Tom Jones Wrote that Shite, Not Me! - When Enjambment Gets You in a Jam
# 111 - Dwarfs, Kisses, Heaven - The Tritina
# 112 - He Must Be Stopped at All Cost or the World Will End - Dodecasyllabic verse
#113 - She Has It Together - A-a-acrostic Poem
#114 - Sorry Chief, I'm Shutting You Down, Find Something Else to Do - The Fourteener
#115 - French Ticker - Oulipo, Concrete or Both?
Never knew there was a word for it. Thanks.
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