M HKA Ensembles

Print, 19 x 37.5 cm.

Collection: Private collection, Antwerp.

This 1953 poem is De Vree’s first sound poem in which the sound and visual value of isolated vowels, consonants, syllables and words are taken as poetry. In his audiovisual poetry De Vree aims to use typography to leave a visual impression and to play on the musicality of the word when it is recited. In Veronika the letters of the words ‘ik stijg’ (I rise) and ‘ik val’ (I fall) are respectively written in a descending and then ascending line, which creates an image of a crater. The words in the next and last sentence of the poem ‘begraaf mi als je mij niet vindtj’ (bury me if you can’t find me) form a descending staircase.

Veronika is also the first poem that De Vree had created for him electronically on a tape recorder. It was recited by Julien Schoenaerts and produced by the composer Jan Bruyndonckx in 1962. In 1966 Henri Chopin released a record of it along with a series of other works set to sound (Revue OU, n°28/29).