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3 Ekphrastic Poems, Translating Poetry Through Visual Art

Writer's picture: Leia EmeeraLeia Emeera

Ekphrastic poetry is an art combining poetry and visual arts. Art itself has always fed off each other. Andy Warhol’s “Last Supper” painting drew direct inspiration from Da Vinci’s influential piece. But these interactions aren’t limited to the boundaries of a singular medium. 


The ekphrastic poem explores the relationship between visual and written art, where poets may react to or interpret the world of an existing or fictitious piece. The term is a derivative of the Greek “ekphrasis”, which translates literally to “description”. 


The practice of giving art new life has spanned over centuries—but notable ones include “The Disquieting Muses”, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, and “Musée des Beaux Arts”.


3 Notable Ekphrastic Poems


1. The Disquieting Muses (1957)


The Disquieting Muses, ekphrastic poem from 1957
The Disquieting Muses | Source: The Marginalian

Sylvia Plath is best known for “The Bell Jar”, “Lady Lazarus”, sticking her head in an oven—and more relevantly, “The Disquieting Muses”. It is a confessional, ekphrastic poem found in one of the few recorded broadcasted readings by Plath herself. It's inspired by Giorgio de Chirico’s 1917 painting of the same name, which was an important piece to the metaphysical art movement.


Scratching the Surface


Poet Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath | Source: the Lilly Library

Plath took the painting and its muses to create a harrowing poem that explores maternal relationships—a theme commonplace in her writing. The poem is chronological. Its opening offers the naïve questions of a baby, then of a toddler, a schoolgirl, and her present, wiser state.


Literally, this ekphrastic poem depicts the conversation of a mother and daughter, as the speaker recalls memories about the three faceless figures that have followed her since birth. But to scratch the surface, each stanza hints to motherly neglect.


If we view these three figures as symbolic of the speaker’s darkness—as suggested by Plath’s verbal preface, “darker emotions may well put on the mask of quite unworldly things”. We can deduce that her questions for her mother throughout, indeed ask if she had noticed her daughter’s suffering, and if she did, why she did not do anything to help her.


The poem is full of literary devices like polysyndeton, tricolons, and imagery, and much like the painting it's inspired by, it includes allusions. Chirico referenced the muses of Greek mythology in his painting, while Plath connected the three statues in the painting to "other sinister trios of women."She also brings in references to fairytales like Hansel and Gretel.


The poem and painting mirror each other in several ways. Plath describes her figures as eternal in their "gowns of stone," just as Chirico immortalises his muses as statues—both trios existing outside of time.


The painting uses light and dark contrasts with color, while Plath creates this contrast by setting cold storms against warm food, or more clearly, placing the speaker "in the shadow." In the end, Plath interprets the painting to reflect the sorrow of a lonely, abandoned speaker.


As with the rest of the poems in this list, it is nearly impossible to cover every detail and every interpretation in a condensed discussion such as this. It would be a disservice to each poem to take my words as fact! Thus, it is recommended that you read each poem yourself.

 

2. Ode on a Grecian Urn (1819)


Ekphrastic poem: Ode on a Grecian Urn
What a Grecian Urn looked like | Source: Savitri Blogs

 

This poem by John Keats is arguably the most famous ekphrastic poem. The Romantic poet had only received recognition for his work posthumously, with this ode being one of the most popular in English Literature.


Unlike the previous poem, “The Disquieting Muses”, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is not based on a particular piece. The speaker of the poem ponders a Grecian urn. Keats would proceed to use apostrophe, to portray imagery of ancient Greek life that has been etched onto the pottery. The speaker responds to the art by fantasizing about the world of the urn, animating it.


Scratching the Surface


John Keats
John Keats by John W. Hilton | Source: National Portrait Gallery London

The Ode deals with themes of transience, love, beauty and nature. To put it broadly, he does so by exploring the sides of the fictitious urn, where the speaker finds lovers in one area, and a group of villagers and a heifer in another.


The two lovers are immortalised, forever beautiful, and eternally in love. It’s a blissful scene, where the lovers are beneath a great tree with pipers playing alongside them. The repeated phrase "Happy, happy" throughout the stanzas uses aspirated epizeuxis to emphasize the frozen portrayal of youthful romance.


However, the couple is ultimately punished for defying natural laws, as they "never canst thou kiss," highlighting the impossibility of their love being fully realized.


The speaker ponders if mortality is simply a necessary part of living. From this point onwards, the speaker’s anxieties about their own temporality heightened. After all, the connotation of the urn reminds readers of the present reality of their own mortality.


Alternatively, the other discussed image is of a cow about to be sacrificed—it is now suspended in a period right before its death. The potter has spared the heifer’s death. Yet again, the villagers who lead the cow have left their own homes empty. There is “not a soul to tell why art thou desolate,” the speaker adds, effectively reminding themself that immortality is soulless.


As the speaker restlessly reflects, they contemplate the lasting power of beauty. Though the lovers cannot touch, they are told "Do not grieve" because her beauty will last forever. The heifer, adorned in flowers and silk, is led to its sacrifice. The famous chiasmus, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” follows.


Despite the speaker's frustration with the urn and its illusions, they ultimately declare that the urn will remain a symbol of truth and beauty—this is all the urn understands.



3. Musée des Beaux Arts (1940)


Landscape with the Fall of Icarus - Ekphrastic poetry:  Musée des Beaux Arts by WH Auden
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus | Source: Brittanica

 

W.H. Auden often spoke of politics and morality—but his adamancy towards discussing public concerns did not stop his bewilderment towards myths and the mystics appearing in his poetry and prose.


Unsurprisingly, Auden’s work is famed for its versatility—not solely in topics or themes, but in structure, form, and technique. He’d write prose and plays; brief poems, lengthy verse—and ekphrastic poetry.


“Musée des Beaux Arts” is believed to be an ekphrasis of Pieter Brueghel’s paintings, with a primary focus on “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”. Similar to Brueghel’s other pieces, this one of Icarus is a landscape and peasant scene. The world in it is alive, and it continues despite Icarus’s wings of wax melting.


Scratching the Surface

W.H. Auden Poet
W.H. Auden | Source: The Paris Review

Auden’s poem speaks of exactly that. Initially, they reference two paintings, which are believed to be: “The Census at Bethlehem” and “The Massacre of the Innocents”. The speaker notes that the former showcases a pregnant Mary and Joseph, while the latter is of the first martyred Christians—both significant, yet the world around them pays no mind and carries on.


Young peasants go about their day, “walking dully along;”, domesticated animals don’t make exceptions for their primal routines, “where the dogs go on with their doggy routines”. Significant events are contrasted with the everyday, and the poem's enjambed lines reflect this theme of effortless continuity, reinforcing the flow between the extraordinary and the ordinary.


A more significant display of this occurrence is the poem’s focal painting, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”. Similar to the title of the painting itself, Icarus’s fall is secondary. It’s set aside, where the focus is not solely on the result of Icarus’s temerity—the “sun shone as it had to” and ships “sailed calmly on”.


Auden iterates the idea of the world’s lack of empathy for what ails the public, a concept commonplace in his writing. The recurrence of caesura throughout creates a physical divide between the people and the tragedy, “Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away”, the colon distinguishes it clearly, akin to the illustrations in Brueghel’s painting.


 

Conclusion

As established, ekphrastic poetry occurs when literature is inspired by visual arts— hopefully, these ekphrastic poems have inspired you too!


Author Bio

From Malaysia, Leia Emeera is a writer at TESSR, and a published author. She has been putting pen to paper ever since she learned how to, and has an anthology to her name, titled 'Ten'. Leia loves music, games and her beloved labrador retriever, George. She aims to further her studies in English Literature and Creative Writing the moment her gap year ends. 'Till then, you will find her sitting behind a desk, writing with TESSR.

 

Connect with her on LinkedIn: Leia Emeera

 

 

 

 

  

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