The most famous piece of ekphrastic poetry is W. H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts" which is a very interesting poem to look at when considering the art that it references. Catholic Literary Arts has an ekphrastic poetry contest right now that you may be interested in:
I have only entered it once, but hopefully some of your readers will consider it. Closes at the end of this month. I’ve written ekphrastic poetry based on my friends’ photos on social media and Substack. And I have written about photos from growing up as well. Poetry, beauty, and memory are so inextricably braided together — at least in my experience as a poet. I have about 3 ekphrastic poems I reading this Sunday at 7pm at an event my friend has organized. It is open to the public. If you are interested let me know and I will give you the link.
Yes! I've read Auden's "Musée des Beaux Arts." But, I don't know all the works he's referencing. Do you have a list? We read William Carlos Williams's poem, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, that is also about Brueghel's Icarus painting (at least this is who it is attributed to). That one made me laugh out loud at the end.
Thank you so much for sharing the ekphrastic poetry contest information! I will definitely pass it along my various channels.
The inter-weaving together of poetry, beauty, and memory is so apt... and then connecting this to ekphrastic writing. Yes! I'm thinking now of particular scenes in fiction, too, where a scene is described with such vivid, poetic prose and there at the center of it is a memory. I'm thinking of moments in Pachinko. And definitely in War and Peace, too.
How can one tell the difference between simple descriptive writing and writing that is meant to be ekphrastic?
Is it the writer’s allusion to something much greater? By great I don’t mean a grandiose idea. For example, you mentioned in the beginning of the post the daffodils blooming. To me, the simple mention of them conjures up smells and crisp mornings. The newness of life.
I love the connection to liturgy, and this is what makes me think the writing must evoke a greater response to something—much larger than just the simple words on the page.
Eh, I’m not even sure what I am writing makes sense, but I love this concept of ekphrastic writing and I look forward to pointing this out as we read.
Rhea. We talked about this in seminar actually, wondering if all descriptive writing is ekphrastic writing. Or, at least should aspire to ekphrastic writing. The purist, I believe, would stick to the notion that ekphrastic writing is that which vividly describes a still life object--preferably some work of art, but could expand out to any object (like Porter's turtle shell, which, I should note I selected as an example of ekphrastic writing; it's not named anywhere formally as ekphrastic).
But then, you can easily expand this out to any work of art. One of my readings included a vivid description of a music concert given at a prison. And then expanded out from there, to include scenes within an action. For example, another one of my readings, a short story called "Patriotism," described moments leading up to a couple's act of seppuku.
The key of ekphrastic writing is that at some point, the writing takes you beyond the "frame" of what you are describing. It does exactly as you said: moves the reader beyond the words on the page, beyond the image, scene, experience, etc.
It's ALL over War & Peace. We'll have to find some examples for March's podcast episode. :)
The most famous piece of ekphrastic poetry is W. H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts" which is a very interesting poem to look at when considering the art that it references. Catholic Literary Arts has an ekphrastic poetry contest right now that you may be interested in:
https://www.catholicliteraryarts.org/2025-sacred-poetry
I have only entered it once, but hopefully some of your readers will consider it. Closes at the end of this month. I’ve written ekphrastic poetry based on my friends’ photos on social media and Substack. And I have written about photos from growing up as well. Poetry, beauty, and memory are so inextricably braided together — at least in my experience as a poet. I have about 3 ekphrastic poems I reading this Sunday at 7pm at an event my friend has organized. It is open to the public. If you are interested let me know and I will give you the link.
Yes! I've read Auden's "Musée des Beaux Arts." But, I don't know all the works he's referencing. Do you have a list? We read William Carlos Williams's poem, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, that is also about Brueghel's Icarus painting (at least this is who it is attributed to). That one made me laugh out loud at the end.
Thank you so much for sharing the ekphrastic poetry contest information! I will definitely pass it along my various channels.
The inter-weaving together of poetry, beauty, and memory is so apt... and then connecting this to ekphrastic writing. Yes! I'm thinking now of particular scenes in fiction, too, where a scene is described with such vivid, poetic prose and there at the center of it is a memory. I'm thinking of moments in Pachinko. And definitely in War and Peace, too.
This may be a silly question but…
How can one tell the difference between simple descriptive writing and writing that is meant to be ekphrastic?
Is it the writer’s allusion to something much greater? By great I don’t mean a grandiose idea. For example, you mentioned in the beginning of the post the daffodils blooming. To me, the simple mention of them conjures up smells and crisp mornings. The newness of life.
I love the connection to liturgy, and this is what makes me think the writing must evoke a greater response to something—much larger than just the simple words on the page.
Eh, I’m not even sure what I am writing makes sense, but I love this concept of ekphrastic writing and I look forward to pointing this out as we read.
Your question is a good one,
Rhea. We talked about this in seminar actually, wondering if all descriptive writing is ekphrastic writing. Or, at least should aspire to ekphrastic writing. The purist, I believe, would stick to the notion that ekphrastic writing is that which vividly describes a still life object--preferably some work of art, but could expand out to any object (like Porter's turtle shell, which, I should note I selected as an example of ekphrastic writing; it's not named anywhere formally as ekphrastic).
But then, you can easily expand this out to any work of art. One of my readings included a vivid description of a music concert given at a prison. And then expanded out from there, to include scenes within an action. For example, another one of my readings, a short story called "Patriotism," described moments leading up to a couple's act of seppuku.
The key of ekphrastic writing is that at some point, the writing takes you beyond the "frame" of what you are describing. It does exactly as you said: moves the reader beyond the words on the page, beyond the image, scene, experience, etc.
It's ALL over War & Peace. We'll have to find some examples for March's podcast episode. :)