Content Overview
Ekphrastic Poetry
Poetry began as a practical way to help people remember things. It was and still is used to help us remember the alphabet, the months of the year, the days of the week, etc. With the recurrence of a line pattern and/or a rhyme our brains are able to recall information more readily. These are known as “Ode or Rhyme Mnemonics.”6
Ekphrastic poetry borrows a Greek term for poems that respond to art, sometimes in vivid detail. It is most often, especially recently, used for paintings, though it can also be used to describe objects and other art forms. Poems used to be memorized, but when they were very long and deemed valuable, they were often transcribed like Homer’s The Iliad. In this he describes the shield of Achilles in almost one hundred fifty lines. Current ekphrasis does not go into long descriptions though, and descriptive poems are not as commonplace, either. Poets after Homer shortened them considerably. One example of this is the painting “Hunters in the Snow” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder described by William Carlos Williams (the poem has the same title). In this poem Williams is deliberately indifferent to the painting and describes it holistically, almost mechanically.
Interestingly, sometimes the description of an artwork is not completely accurate and involves objects that are not actually there. In the example of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “Poem,” she describes a “thin church steeple” that is not actually there. Other poets have, during the creative writing process, imagined objects or embellished their writing when experiencing the aesthetic of the artwork. This happens in the poem by Joyce Carol Oates about Edward Hopper’s painting “Nighthawks.” In her poem she starts out descriptive, quickly goes to interpretive, and then quickly switches to a vibrant story about the people represented in the painting.
Another way poets respond to a work of art is interpretative. They use various ways to interpret an artwork. Sometimes poets imagine they are in it, other times they talk to the objects, or pretend they just approached it and are reacting to it. In “Musee des Beaux Arts,“ W. H. Auden interprets Pieter Brueghel’s The Fall of Icarus by mentioning the “old Masters” in a museum experience where they would be witnessing and participating in a painting illustrating the importance of everyday life with a very small pictorial devoted to Icarus’ demise. Everyone in the painting is too busy with their daily chores to notice that he fell in the water. Auden expresses his distaste for the sequence of events by interpreting the image according to not only what he sees, but what the “old Masters” see, as well.
In the seminar, “Poems about Works of Art, Featuring Women and Other Marginalized Writers” taught by Paul H. Fry, I have learned that there is a distinction between men and women authors of ekphrastic poetry. Men seem to respond indifferently towards the work of art and do not recognize its value, almost as if they are trying to “prove” their and their poem’s worth. Because pictures are allegedly free from the need to communicate meaningful content, poems should also be self-sufficient, according to the men. Conversely, women tend to immerse themselves in the work of art and are almost sympathetic towards it. This is relevant because not only does it determine the tone of the poem, it also leads to the significance of my seminar, which features women and other marginalized writers. In my previous examples there were white male poets, but they weren’t men of the establishment; they were considered marginal of unpopular political views during the time period in which they wrote and Auden was homosexual in the 1930’s.
Why Art and Poetry?
Art and poetry naturally go together for many reasons. Many cultures, such as Japanese, have always included images alongside their poems (or poems alongside their images). Poetry and visual arts happen together just as water is to the earth. Though the earth and water exist separately, they thrive together.
During the Dadaist movement, which aimed to undermine authority, many artists created new ways to express themselves that involved doing the opposite of what was already being done. Because of this movement there was a convergence of the visual and literary arts. Artists created art and poems together where font, style, size, placement, and the shape of the letters were important to the poem. Interestingly, today’s memes are yesterday’s Dadaist graphics. We now see snippets of poems everywhere, especially in technology. What do students think of these? Do they inspire them? Or make them laugh? Would they write one for a class blog of memes? Though to some it may seem in poor taste or even a stretch, the Dadaist movement has shown us that great things can come from a merger of two things that seemingly do not go together.
When learning about art and a poem the process is the same. The medium is different. However, the medium is different for painting (paint and canvas, paper, wood) than for sculpture (plaster, metal, clay). The medium for poetry is words, paper, pen or pencil or ink (from a printer). Each has its own possibilities and limitations. As a visual artist I teach students about mediums such as watercolor, clay, ink, and pencil. English Language Art teachers teach students about words. Words are in everything and are everywhere, so they are “everyone’s” medium of sorts.
English Language Arts teachers have more required teaching material than they can possibly teach in one school year. Poetry is just one aspect. In addition to this, there has been a dramatic shift in the required skill set for people with the emergence of technology. 21st century advancements require strong written and creative skills for students to be competitive today. Successful forward-thinking companies such as Google are searching for those who are able to merge their technological skills with creativity. The minimum expectation is to have excellent writing skills to communicate these ideas. Because of this and because of the very natural way that poetry fits both neatly and constructively in tension with the visual arts, they should or could be embraced together.
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