Each player blindly chooses nine strips but uses only seven to form a poem.

Alternatively, photocopied lines from classic poems (see above) can be cut into strips and jumbled into a bowl.

The paper is unfolded and the whole “story” is revealed––often with hilarious results. The paper is folded over then passed to several other participants who add to it and fold until it reaches the last person, or the bottom of the page.

A random sentence is written near the top of the page. “Consequences” is the original name of this literary pen and paper parlour game which has been played since the 1800s Victorian Era.The version attributed to the Surrealist Movement is when the weirdest possible head, torso, legs of the Exquisite Corpse are drawn by three different players, each folding over the paper so the next person can’t see the results until it is unfolded at the end of the game. This game can be adapted for writers, artists, poets and movie fans! Blowfish.Ī glittering roof slaps at crazy ephemera.Test your memory and see if you can name any poets from the lines I picked randomly during a timed exercise (see below) “Like gold to airy thinness beat” is from Valediction, Forbidding Mourning by John Donne (1573–1631) Slung trousers melt in a roseate box.Ī broken calendar oscillates like sunny tin. So get a couple of friends and try writing an exquisite corpse.Īs an example, the following is an Exquisite Corpse composed by the intrepid Academy staff using the sentence construction Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adjective, Noun. Remember, many of the most effective phrases or metaphors are those that are most surprising. Exquisite Corpse is a great way to collaborate with other poets, and to free oneself from imaginative constraints or habits. The only hard and fast rule of Exquisite Corpse is that each participant is unaware of what the others have written, thus producing a surprising-sometimes absurd-yet often beautiful poem. The name 'Exquisite Corpse' comes from a line of poetry created using the technique: 'The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine.'

The game was also adapted to drawing, where one participant would draw thehead of a figure, the next the torso, etc. For example, each sentence in the poem could be structured 'Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adjective, Noun.' Articles and verb tenses may be added later or adjusted after the poem has been written. In order to write a poem, participants should agree on a sentence structure beforehand. Exquisite Corpse is played by several people, each of whom writes a word on a sheet of paper, folds the paper to conceal it, and passes it on to the next player for his or her contribution. Exquisite Corpse is a collaborative poetry game that traces its roots to the Parisian Surrealist Movement.

Exquisite corpse book