Ekphrastic Poetry Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ekphrastic Poetry - Assignment Example In the first pairing, we see Peter Bruegel the Elder’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. W.H. Auden wrote Musee des Beaux Arts based on this painting. While it is probably a fine poem—W.H. Auden being a famous writer—the only real reference that caught my attention was in the second line of the poem where he referred overtly to the Dutch masters. Truthfully, Landscape wasn’t really an attention-grabbing piece of art either in several respects, although the colors were enjoyable. Additionally, even though the allegorical references to Icarus in both the painting and the poem are duly noted, such references were lost on this writer—much as one may adore art and poetry. The second poem was just about as engaging. The most interesting part was in the third stanza when it seemed as though the author was alluding to the fact that one day these men in the picture would be buried in snow at the top of the hill—true, a bit macabre, but it captured th e imagination. Mingus in Shadow was simply depressing. It’s not enough to hear about and see the picture of someone who is dead/dying—but, to hear that they were obese in life and then to talk about the grandiosity of their souls in relation to their body image—seems a bit obtuse and oversimplified as a metaphor. Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem was absolutely brilliant in so many ways.