Poems on Pre-Existing Works of Art

[AuntShecky]

I'm posting this in the hopes that LitNetters who are following a current topic in "Poetry Games and Contests" --
"Poems Inspired by Paintings" -- might find the following background information useful.

Ekphrasis is the umbrella term for works of art whose subjects are pre-existing works of art (usually in a different form.)

The subset of poems inspired by works of art is large. Perhaps the most famous is this one by Keats.


Other notable ekphrastic poems include a famous offering by W. H. Auden.

Here's another "take" on the very same painting from Pictures from Brueghel by William Carlos Williams.


And finally, Wallace Stevens reacts to a famous Picasso work.



If you can think of any other notable poems based on works of art, please post them on this thread.

[stlukesguild]

For Our Lady of the Rocks, by Leonardo Da Vinci
-Dante Gabriel Rossetti

http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/5-1848.raw.html

There are dozens of poems inspired by the work of the American artist, Joseph Cornell. perhaps my favorite is the collection of poems/meditations by Charles Simic, entitled Dime-Store Alchemy:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19893