Grace Unto Every Art

Poetry from Visual Art at the Longfellow House NHSLed by Meg Winikates

@mwinikates, http://mwinikates.com

“The Building of the Ship” [excerpt] by HWL

"Build me straight, O worthy Master!Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel,That shall laugh at all disaster,And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!"The merchant's wordDelighted the Master heard;For his heart was in his work, and the heartGiveth grace unto every Art.A quiet smile played round his lips,As the eddies and dimples of the tidePlay round the bows of ships,That steadily at anchor ride.And with a voice that was full of glee,He answered, "Erelong we will launchA vessel as goodly, and strong, and stanch, as ever weathered a wintry sea!" ….

What is Ekphrasis?

Art created in reaction to or inspired by another piece of art, frequently in a different form

(AKA fanfiction, fanart & the Renaissance)

Visual Arts

Poetry

Music

Dance &

Theater

Literature

About suffering they were never wrong,The old Masters: how well they understoodIts human position: how it takes placeWhile someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waitingFor the miraculous birth, there always must beChildren who did not specially want it to happen, skatingOn a pond at the edge of the wood:They never forgotThat even the dreadful martyrdom must run its courseAnyhow in a corner, some untidy spotWhere the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horseScratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns awayQuite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman mayHave heard the splash, the forsaken cry,But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shoneAs it had to on the white legs disappearing into the greenWater, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seenSomething amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Musee des Beaux Arts W. H. Auden

The Fall of Icarus Pieter Brueghel

Longfellow’s Ekphrastic Poems (a few!)• “A Dutch Picture” (painting)• “The Four Princesses at Wilna”

(photograph)• “From my Arm-Chair” (furniture)• “The Iron Pen” (commemorative

historical object)• “Sonnet on Mrs. Kemble's Reading

from Shakespeare” (theater)

Published summer 2015, Window Cat Press http://windowcatpress.weebly.com/summer-15.html

Your Task: Find Your Art• Find 1-2 art works in the House that draw you

in.• Any medium! Sculpture, furniture, and other

decorative arts are as valid as paintings.

• Brainstorm a list of words and phrases provoked by each work.

• Take photos for future reference if you need/want. Remember, no flash photos!

• Bring your notes back to here to write your poem draft(s).

How do we get there?

• Visual Thinking Strategies • What do you see?• What makes you say that?• What else?

• Be aware of your reactions, artists’ choices

Possible connections

• Theme• Visual qualities

• Tone• Texture• Composition• Color• Movement

• Emotional reaction• Resonances (or dissonances!)

• Personal memories• References to artistic/literary tradition• Using one as metaphor/frame for the

other• Timelines (cause & effect, before &

after)

Results & Reactions?

Thank you!

@mwinikates

http://mwinikates.com

megwinikateslinkedin.com/in/mwinikates

www.pinterest.com/winikat/

Next workshop:Massachusetts Poetry Festival 2016

April 29-May 1, Salem MA“The World in a Grain of Sand:

Incorporating Scalein Poetry and Art”