Ekphrastic Poetry
- Emily Bilman
- Jan 8, 2020
- 1 min read
Updated: Sep 7, 2020
"Ekphrasis" derives from the old Greek "to declare" and they used to declare their ideas
about artworks, be they paintings or sculptures or murals, with lyrical verses or in prose
poetry. Today, the tradition continues with many poems written about paintings mainly.
The main difference between these two media is that poetry, since it is written with words that are read on the page, is a temporal art whereas painting is a spatial art which can be directly perceived by the beholder. Words evolve with time also and are non-Cratylic; the meaning does not necessarily correspond to the phonetic sound to the pronunciation except in onomatopeias. Painting has a direct grip on the beholder who can gaze on it as long as he wishes and write verse about it; yet. the temporal restrictions of words in verses obliges the reader to follow a time pattern, the more so in poetry which is rhythmic and has a naturally inherent pattern of music to it.
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