In 1918, the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire invented a poetry form called the Calligram. The word
"calligram" is derived from the Greek "calli" and "gramma," which together mean "beautiful writing."
Apollinaire invented a poetry form of the word and used it as a title for a book of poems. His poems
didn't look like poems; they used new combination and shapes of words and lines. They were
different from shaped or "concrete" poems, for some were not in the shape of a particular thing; the
lines were tilted around the page or with words in various different sizes. His poetry took a step
toward making each work into a piece of visual art. See "Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic
Forms," edited by Ron Padgett, for a more complete answer. See November's ANSWER THIS for a
related topic, concrete poetry.