Illustrating Ekphrasis: Defining the Term
As previously defined, ekphrasis is "a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art." However, as noted in John Hollander's The Gazer's Spirit: Poems Speaking to Silent Works of Art, there are different types of ekphrasis depending on the piece of art work on which the literature is based.
"Actual ekphrasis," writes Hollander, is best defined when the literature describes or comments on "a particular, identifiable work." Emma Lazarus's "The New Colossus" would be an example of actual ekphrasis since the poem reflects upon an identifiable – and currently viewable – piece of art. The art in this case would be, of course, the Statue of Liberty.
Opposite of "actual ekphrasis" is when a piece of literature draws its inspiration from art that, prior to the writing of the poem, did not exist. In essence, states Hollander, the writer "urges a painter or sculptor to make one with the properties that are then detailed." This is called "notional ekphrasis." Homer's famed description of the shield of Achilles or the similarly famous "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by the English Romantic poet John Keats are both excellent examples of this ekphrastic approach. Neither the divine shield hammered by the god Hephaestus nor the urn, which is the "bride of quietness" according to Keats, exists anywhere other than in each of their respective writers' imaginations.
Sometimes literature is written about a piece of art that was in existence at one time, but now it is either "lost or untraceable." Examples include Elizabeth Bishop's "Poem," a delightful poem about a "little painting" by an uncle she remembers from her childhood. These writings, notes Hollander, are best categorized as "unassessable actual ekphrasis." While the artwork did exist at one time, he admits, because they are no longer available, the ekphrastic piece "might as well be notional."
The last type of ekphrasis with which we will concern ourselves is simply noted as an "emblem" in The Gazer's Spirit. Plainly stated, we will only be using the emblem in which a picture is "accompanied" by text that serves to connect a motto, proverb, or something similar to it. 2 The famous "Gadsden Flag" with its menacing curled rattlesnake ready to strike and the words in all capital letters "DON'T TREAD ON ME" has its roots in ekphrastic emblems. Certain tattoos, coins, stamps, and the like follow this tradition. Another type of ekphrastic emblem is the shaped and figured poem in which the pieces' words literally become the image it describes. George Herbert's "Easter Wings" and Lewis Carroll's "The Mouse's Tale" are notable examples.
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