Art & Poetry
Ekphrastic poems
"Exphrasis" means a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art. These are poems commenting works of art.
Pieter Bruegel and W.H. Auden
Pieter Bruegel. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. c.1560. Here you can find a reproduction of the painting with some background information about it and a link to some biographical notes about the artist.
W.H. Auden. "Musée des Beaux Arts". 1940. Here you will find a transcription of the poem, and below it you can listen to a recording of this poem. There is also some background information on the poem and on the author. Finally, there are links to the Oxford English Dictionary to check some words and to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography where you can read more about the author.
Willard Spiegelman's comments on "Musée des Beaux Arts". 1999. Here you can listen to Dr. Spiegelman's comments on the poem from his course How to Read and Understand Poetry.
Willard Spiegelman's notes on "Musée des Beaux Arts". 1999. Here you can read some notes taken from Dr. Spiegelman's guide to his course.
A Grecian Urn and John Keats
Tracing of an engraving of the "Sosibios Vase" by John Keats. Here you can see the tracing of a vase by Athenian sculptor Sosibios.
Vase signed by Athenian sculptor Sosibios. 3rd-1st centuries BCE. Here you can see the original vase at the Louvre Museum, which was used as the model for the engraving that Keats traced.
John Keats. "Ode on a Grecian Urn". 1819.
Willard Spiegelman's comments on
Willard Spiegelman's notes on