Ekphrasis
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School
University of Houston, Clear Lake *
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Course
LITR-237
Subject
Arts Humanities
Date
Jan 9, 2024
Type
docx
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2
Uploaded by DrSparrow3881
Ekphrasis
Ekphrasis means describing a piece of art. The poet uses the work of art to ponder about bigger issues, not just to describe the work of art literally ("Well, there's kind of a squiggly line in the middle
....
"). Today you're going to read a little about ekphrasis, evaluate an example, and then write your own.
1. Read
this
definition, including the famous "Ode on a Grecian Urn." Check out a Grecian urn
yourself. Write ~50 words about why Keats chose to interpret the urn this way. Which emotions, ideas or forms does he draw on from the art and for his poem?
2. Choose one of the following pictures:
The Yellow Scale
Gray Flora
Hounds Bringing Down the Boar
Wooded Landscape with a Pond
Russian Dancers
Mademoiselle Boissiere Knitting
The Battle
Then write a ekphrasis poem. DO NOT
title your poem with the name of the art (not yet, anyway).
3. Respond to at least two other students'
poems. First, take a stab at it and guess which work of art you think inspired them. Then write ~50 words about how you see the art reflected in the poem. What emotions does it invoke? What are the main ideas that the art and poem have in common?
1.
Keats conjecture of the urn reminds me of the thoughts associated with people watching.
Have you ever sat on a bench in a public place and found yourself gazing absent-
mindedly at a couple or a lone person and wondered, “I wonder what their life is like,” or “I wonder if they’re happy,” and then gone on to speculate your own theories as to who they are or what they’re going through? If I’m alone in this characteristic, bear with me. I imagine Keats, with a curious gaze, analyzing the thin, fractured lines of the figures, simultaneously creating a fictional character from the urn. Perhaps he projected this rationale from a place of emotional anguish, as his words describe an entity that cannot varnish or fade. Perhaps he longs for something as unequivocal as lovers stranded in time upon a Grecian urn.
A pulse quickens within
And tension inflates.
Stricken with the cognizance
Of scrutiny.
The sullen pout, shadowing repugnance
Ignites chagrin and shame.
Hold fast.
Is it intrigue?
Should this lackadaisical slump
Inhibit the psyche
Or am I indeed a riveting
Spectacle?
The blinding medium Strokes the instability of the mind,
Caught between comfort and indignity
And chips away at questionable
Self-assurance.
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