by Christine Swint
Ekphrasis is an unusual looking word, one often bandied about in the world of poetry. The ancient Greek origin of ekphrasis simply meant any kind of description, but in contemporary times ekphrasis has become a literary or rhetorical device in which a writer describes a visual work of art. For our purposes, ekphrasis is a poem about a painting, sculpture, photograph, or even a film.
One of the most famous ekphrastic poems is John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1819). The narrator contemplates an ancient urn, describing the scenes painted on it and compares the everlasting qualities of youth, beauty and love depicted there to the decay of humans as time passes.
Examples of contemporary ekphrasis can be found on the web. In April of 2007, Qarrstiluni published an ekphrastic issue. One of the poems that caught my eye was “Mark,” by Tall Girl, an interpretation of Nexus I and Nexus II by Marja-Leena Rathje.
Another oasis of ekphrasis is visual artist and poet Rick Mobb’s site, mine enemy grows older. Each week Rick posts an original painting for poets and storytellers to interpret. He also generously allows writers to post his paintings on their sites, and then gathers their work with links on his blog.
For examples of the kind of collaboration going on at Rick’s site, read Jo Hemmant’s “Asherah“; “The Prayer of Bearmom,” by Ozymandiaz; “bird of happiness,” by paisley; and “What they said to him,” by Joyce Davis (aka Pepek the Assasin).
Even though I’m not a visual artist myself, photography and sculpture, really any kind of visual art, will stop me in my tracks. It’s fun to go to a museum with my journal, sit in front of a painting and write my impressions.
I’ve found inspiration recently in the surreal paintings of Giorgio De Chirico. Many poets, when acknowledging the source of their inspiration, include an epigraph after the title of the poem.
But where does a poet start when writing a poem as a description of a painting? Rick Mobb invites poets to go where the painting leads them, to tell the story that comes out of the images on the canvas.
In her article “Conventions of Ekphrasis,” Francois Lachance details different types of ekphrastic poems she has found. Some of the different responses she includes are poems in praise of a work of art, poems that give voice to a mute object in a painting, and poems that seem to criticize the painting, to say that the poet’s words are more immediate or transcendent than the static visual work.
I’ve always been a storyteller, much preferring fantasy to fact. When I look at a portrait, it’s fun to imagine what kind of life the subject led, without knowing any historic details about the actual person. But other poets enjoy sticking to the facts, to respond emotionally to the historic events depicted in a painting.
Whatever your reaction to a painting is, try jotting down your impressions. Maybe you’ll refer to your notebook later, and write an impressive, or, uh … impressionist poem.
Thanks for the link to qarrtsiluni. I just have two brief points: 1) For me, blogging itself is best when it’s ekphrastic. Images help snare the typically ADDled web reader long enough to read the accompanying text, and for the writer – well, O.K., for me at least – a recent photo or three always makes an excellent writing prompt. 2) The term “open source” is sometimes extended well beyond software circles (sometimes by me
and I think Rick Mobb’s approach to his paintings could definitely be described in this way. His willingness to let others reprint and recontextualize his works would probably strike a lot of authors, conditioned by market thinking, as sheer foolishness, but it’s actually a brilliant way to build an audience – who become more than an audience, more than passive, potential customers, but fellow members of a creative community. The artist or poet who releases his/her work in this way gains not just in exposure (and hence, potentially, income, depending on the medium) but in increased sources of inspiration. Multiple creative feedback loops can form.
This is a very article. I appreciate the quality of your research. Many of the poems and prose I write are inspired from pictures I take or something I see that others have captured. When I visit a museum of art I find poetry in the compositions. I am always energized after a trip. Spending a lot of time surrounded by nature with none of the artificial human adaptations to clog my perspective compounds the imaginary experience of my thoughts. I realize that in using the word ‘ekphrasis’ the word relates to static art. I wonder if in our modern age if it now can be expanded to include mobile, living, or natural art i.e., Mother Natures art? But then we would have an unending discussion of what is art. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder would it also be true that art is in the eye of the beholder and open to ekpharsis? Thanks!
Regards
~~DCH~~
Insert: This is a very “good” article. (Editing cramp)
Dave, what? I have to include photos with my blog posts now? I can’t keep up with you. Too much work.
Your thoughts about the active participation in a community and the audience-building and all that are brilliant and spot on, as always.
How close does a poem have to be to the painting to be considered ekphrasic? (I know, I know. you can’t be too precise here!)
I find that telling the story, particularly in responding to Rick’s amazing pictures, takes me into the world of the picture rather than being about the picture itself… is that still ekphrasis? I can’t help feeling that the reader need to know that there is a work of art involved!
Oh, and I can’t resist sharing a link to my favourite ekphrasic poem: Ursula Fanthorpe’s brilliant poem Not my best side
Really nice work, Christine. I always enjoy reading these posts.
This one reminded me of a poem my son Brady wrote last year (he was nine). He even read it at an open mike once right after some guy read a poem about pooping his pants at a party (that guy was not, in fact, a child.)
Here’s the link to Brady’s poem:
http://hollyannam.blogspot.com/2008/07/bradys-ekphrasis.html
Interesting and I’m going to disagree with Dave……..(sorry) np wait, first off I’m going to agree, yes, Rick is an absolute star, he is all about community and has been a very real source of inspiration to many people BUT blogs who use photos to open up a post (now I’m not talking about your nature stuff here, Dave, that’s different), I find it sometimes distracting…….my mind sees the picture, makes an immediate emotional response and this then feeds my reading of the poem/prose piece whatever. I’d almost rather the words stood alone, unless they are specifically ekphraisic. But that’s just my twopenneth.
Great piece, Christine, by the way, as always, thanks for the link.
J
is that what I did?
Everyone,
Christine is on vacation, otherwise she would have (I am certain) responded (with delight and charm) to your comments…
(It’s why she wrote this great article early, to be ready for next week!)
I agree with Lirone that UA Fanthorpe’s poem Not my Best Side is one of the best ekphrastic poems.
It’s also worth mentioning haiga which are a combination of haiku and art, the two really form a whole though rather than the haiku being ekphrastic, though sometimes blog layout means that many are presented in a sense separately.
[...] paintings (three are below, click image to enlarge) and write a poem to it. You can refer back to my article on ekphrastic poetry for ideas on how to go about using the images as prompts, or simply let the pen fly in a free write [...]
[...] Ekphrasis is a type of poetry wherein the author describes another work of art — think Keats’ Ode to a Grecian Urn. The poem I wrote is a Fib poem which was inspired by the subject matter of the poem. Thank you to Rick Mobbs for sharing his artwork as inspiration. More ekphrasis poems at read write poem. All content written by Liza Lee Miller unless otherwise noted. © 2008, Liza Lee Miller. [...]