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Ekphrastic poem

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A poem that responds to, interprets, or reimagines a specific work of visual art, bridging visual and verbal modes of expression.

Detailed Definition
An Ekphrastic poem vividly describes or responds to a work of visual art—painting, sculpture, photograph—translating its imagery, mood, or narrative into language; it may imagine the scene’s backstory, address the artist, or critique the artwork’s cultural context, as in Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” or Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts.”
Example
Example in poetry:
Ekphrastic poem: "Keats’ 'Ode on a Grecian Urn'—art frozen in time"; "Auden’s 'Musée des Beaux Arts' on Bruegel’s Icarus"; "Rilke’s 'Archaic Torso of Apollo'—'You must change your life'"; "Contemporary: poem on Basquiat graffiti"; "Poem enters artwork, gives it voice or context"
Additional Notes
Poetry describing or responding to visual art, from Greek "ekphrasis" (description). Classic example: Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn." Related to descriptive poetry but specifically engages artwork. Study how poems translate visual to verbal medium.
Also Known As
Art poem Descriptive verse Visual response Gallery poetry Art description poem
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