William Carlos Williams wasn't the only poet to write about Brueghel's painting, "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus." Another -- more famous -- poem about this painting is W.H. Auden's "Musee Des Beaux Arts."
The two poems and Brueghel's painting make a great lesson for high schoolers.
Auden's poem begins:
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
This week's writing exercise: try your hand at an ekphrastic poem.
Choose a favorite work of art -- one that would stop you as you walked through a museum or gallery to have a conversation. What is it about the painting that "talks" to you?
Mine is by Mark Rothko (54).
I'm prepping for a poetry residency at Norwood Elementary in Dundalk, MD tomorrow, so time is short. Each Poetry Friday, I visit Laura Salas' blog: 15 Words or Less Poems. That blog, and my time constraints, inspired me to keep it short!
I know I'm not supposed to see realistic objects in a Rothko painting, but...
Torii at dusk,
I approach you.
What is beyond
your gate? Sleep,
dense as stone.
Have a fantastic ekphrastic experience, y'all.
6 comments:
Yes. Art brings inspiration. I would love to try this writing exercise. Thank you for sharing.
I'm sorry, I am going to have to write you up for unauthorized use of "ya"ll" by a non-Texan.
I love this and will be working with an ekphrastic this week.
Michelle,
Would you be happier if I used "youse"? I am a Jersey girl.
Wait until you read my middle grade novel in verse. One of the poems is in the voice of a boy recently transplanted from Texas. He's feeling a little underwhelmed by Columbia, MD.
Maybe I should ask you to translate that poem into Texan.
Glad everyone enjoyed the ekprhastic poetry!
Great post. Hope you had fun at your poetry residency!
And I'm an ex-Florida girl who uses y'all, so I guess I'll be subject to the same fines and punishment you are:>)
Thanks, Laura! The poetry residency is off to a good start. I'll be there for two weeks.
Good to know I'm not the only non-Texan who y'alls people!
Laura
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