Resources
Materials for the Classroom
Ekphrastic Poems
I choose the sixteen ekphrastic poems for my classes, but there are of course many more ekphrastic poems to choose from. The first twelve poems are available online. The last four poems are from the book of ekphrastic poems World Make Way: New Poems Inspired by Art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins, which contains seventeen poems written for a young audience.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Cross of Snow”
- Edward Hirsch, “Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad”
- Robert Hayden, “Monet’s Waterlilies”
- Mary Leader, “Girl at a Sewing Machine”
- Yusef Komunyakaa, “Facing It”
- Cathy Song, “Girl Powdering Her Neck”
- Anne Carson, “Room in Brooklyn”
- Kate Daniels, “War Photograph”
- Lisa Mullenneaux, “Too Hot, Too Hot”
- Natasha Tretheway, “Kitchen Maid”
- Neil Ellman, “Botanical Laboratory”
- Matthew Olzman, “Replica of the Thinker”
- Cynthia Cotton, “Resistance”
- Marilyn Nelson, “Studio”
- Marilyn Singer, “Paint Me”
- Alma Flor Ada, “Dancing”
Web Resources
Sources that I will use to help students develop their own lexicon of emotions will include the interactive website by Paul Ekman, Atlas of Emotions, which was commissioned by the Dalai Lama. Students will also visit The Visual Thesaurus, another interactive website that is fairly self-explanatory.
During the section on color and art terminology, I will have students visit the Cleveland Institute of Art’s online Glossary of Art Terms, a beautiful and free publication. The artist Jill Poyerd created a fantastic video titled Emotion in Art that will help me to tie the three subjects of my unit--art, emotion, and poetry--together.
Further Reading for Teachers
I highly recommend two books by the poet Kenneth Koch on teaching poetry to children: Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? and Wishes, Lies, and Dreams. Koch is my hero for teaching poetry, and his work helps me help my students unlock their capacity for abstraction and brilliance.
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