ASTRAL WEEKS bonus material

Remember my last Astral Weeks column, the one about the lost 1881 New Zealand science-fiction novel, The Great Romance? The "all-caps" declaration at the beginning is a calligram of sorts in the original form:

I

WILL

TELL YOU

A TALE WILDER

THAN POET EVER DREAMED!

YEA, STRANGER THAN

THE VISION OF

THE MADDEST

PROPHET!

What is that shape supposed to represent? (It's a shade squatter in the book.) Some sort of hat? Urn/vessel? Masonic thingy?