Ekphrasis: A Poetry Friday post
Ekphrasis
It’s as fun to say as it is to spell, and is pronounced eck-frass-iss. Allegedly it’s an old Greek term meaning “to speak out”, although neither of my dictionaries contains the word, even if I check for the alternate spelling of ecphrasis, which is not nearly as much fun as the version with a “k”.
What the “ek” is it? It is a rhetorical device used to describe another piece of art or another artistic form. Most often, the art described is a painting or a photograph, but one could conceivably describe a piece of music or a movie and it would count as an ekphrastic poem. Sometimes ekphrastic poems are also apostrophes. No, not the punctuation mark, but a poem addressed to an object. A prime example is John Keats’s Ode on a Grecian Urn, in which he addresses the poem to the urn while describing it in great detail. But I digress.
Ekphrastic poems usually fall into one of two camps. I’ll stick to paintings for the examples, to give you a better idea. In the first category, the poet attempts to describe what is (or seems to be) going on in the painting. Check out John Stone’s American Gothic or Paul Engle’s Venus and the Lute Player. In the second category, the poet derives some meaning from the painting and moves on from there. An excellent example of this latter form is the poem RIND by Catherine A. Callaghan which you can read here.
In his blog, Eric Selinger presents a number of terrific ideas for teaching poets to write ekphrastic poetry. If you’re thinking of a foray into this niche, check out his great ideas for writing ekphrastic poems.
Finally, for the truly curious and/or devoted, and for those who just can’t get enough ekphrasis in their lives, there’s the thoughtful work of Calamity Jane, who has gone to extraordinary lengths to document common devices used in ekphrastic poetry. Be sure to check the comments as well on this piece.
It’s as fun to say as it is to spell, and is pronounced eck-frass-iss. Allegedly it’s an old Greek term meaning “to speak out”, although neither of my dictionaries contains the word, even if I check for the alternate spelling of ecphrasis, which is not nearly as much fun as the version with a “k”.
What the “ek” is it? It is a rhetorical device used to describe another piece of art or another artistic form. Most often, the art described is a painting or a photograph, but one could conceivably describe a piece of music or a movie and it would count as an ekphrastic poem. Sometimes ekphrastic poems are also apostrophes. No, not the punctuation mark, but a poem addressed to an object. A prime example is John Keats’s Ode on a Grecian Urn, in which he addresses the poem to the urn while describing it in great detail. But I digress.
Ekphrastic poems usually fall into one of two camps. I’ll stick to paintings for the examples, to give you a better idea. In the first category, the poet attempts to describe what is (or seems to be) going on in the painting. Check out John Stone’s American Gothic or Paul Engle’s Venus and the Lute Player. In the second category, the poet derives some meaning from the painting and moves on from there. An excellent example of this latter form is the poem RIND by Catherine A. Callaghan which you can read here.
In his blog, Eric Selinger presents a number of terrific ideas for teaching poets to write ekphrastic poetry. If you’re thinking of a foray into this niche, check out his great ideas for writing ekphrastic poems.
Finally, for the truly curious and/or devoted, and for those who just can’t get enough ekphrasis in their lives, there’s the thoughtful work of Calamity Jane, who has gone to extraordinary lengths to document common devices used in ekphrastic poetry. Be sure to check the comments as well on this piece.