Ekphrastic Poetry: From Achilles to the Kitchen Sink
Meredith Bergmann
What can we learn from looking, not just at art, but at a poet’s whole creative environment, through an ekphrastic lens? We'll start off with a guided walk-through of Frost’s house, including the art on the walls, the telephone, the wallpaper, the delicate metal crib, and all– including the kitchen sink with its deep knife cuts. Poems were written here, and we will write our own in response. We’ll consider different kinds of ekphrastic poetry, focusing on varieties of detailed description. We'll look at some of Frost’s forms and the ways in which he employed them, though students will be encouraged to read, and try, a variety of forms for writing poems in response to Frost’s farm. The workshop will include both in-class exercises and careful consideration (prosodic and conceptual) of poems brought by each member of the class.
