Reframing Art and Poetry: Contemporary Poets on Visual Art

Catalog description

Why have poets since the Bronze Age been compelled by visual art? What unique opportunities does writing poems about art provide? Rather than being 'about' art, we'll spend the quarter discussing how ekphrastic poems are, instead, in conversation with another medium by reading selections from 20th century and contemporary poets such as Robert Hayden, James Merrill, Mary Szybist, Sally Wen Mao, and Phillip B. Williams. We'll read poems inspired by paintings, movies, video games, and more. In addition, we will explore boundary-pushing forms like visual poems and poetry films to interrogate our own understandings of poetry and art.