UbuWeb's Historical section primarily documents the trajectory of visual and concrete poetry, beginning with Simias Rhodius's "Wings of Eros in Theocritus", dating from 1516, and continuing all the way into the late 1970s. Several stream running concurrent with these trends are interspersed throughout the section that might otherwise be excluded from a more narrowly focused study: visual deconstructions of language on the page (Stéphane Mallarmé), sound poetry scores (Historical Sound Poetry Scores) and Objectivist tendencies (Louis Zukofsky). In this genre, drawing lines has proven to be a difficult task. With that in mind, the editors have tried to link to related material in other sections of UbuWeb.

Traditionally, representations of concrete and visual poetry have been accompanied by commentaries upon and translations of the language employed in the various poem. The editors have chosen to dispense with this convention and, instead, let the work visually represent itself. However, links to extensive commentary on most of the pieces can be found on the individual author's pages.

This collection builds from the three primary source collections of contemporary visual and concrete poetry: Mary Ellen Solt's Concrete Poetry: A World View (Indian University Press, 1968), Emmett Williams' Anthology of Concrete Poetry (Something Else Press, 1967), and Jean-François Bory's Once Again (New Directions, 1968). Several other sources have been consulted including Luigi Ballerini's Italian Visual Poetry (Finch College Museum / Istituto Italiano di Cultura, 1973) and numerous papers included in UbuWeb's Papers section (linked from each author's page).

It has been our initial objective to present an overview of historical visual and concrete poetry based on these sources. In our first version, we are presenting a highly subjective and edited view of the history based on the criteria of timelines, visuality and relevance to the times in which we live today. However, this policy is subject to change as our collection expands and as the times in which we live require shifting points of view.