Ekphrasis poems are descriptive poems. Ekphrasis poems are vivid descriptions of a work of art or a scene that connects with the observer and real world around them. Ekphrasis poems work through striking imaginations of the narration or art and reflecting on the piece of art including paintings and sculpture. Art connects the painters and the rest of the world through infinite interpretations (“Ekphrasis”). Jackson Pollock’s artwork amuses me greatly. His creation inspires thrill and insight. Pollock applies drip painting techniques on murals to encourage his message with the observer. The Big Dip is the most amusing of Pollock’s creation. Each stroke of the brush has a leading dimension that connects with a natural phenomenon of the night sky.
The Big Dipper consists of several layers of paints and drips enamel as the finish for the art piece. Pollock invents a new form of painting and expression through drip painting. Pollock applies thousands of tiny droplets inconsistently across the surface that relates to clear night sky (“Reflection Of The Big Dipper, 1947 By Jackson Pollock”). The picture reflects on the creator’s hard journey and jumbled thoughts. The Big Dipper connects unconsciously with the viewer in a lost and troubled mind trying to unpuzzle the trend and design. Such is the complexity of his painting.
“The curves and the spirals of the wind,
The stroke of darkness, the blue sky
White pearls, ambience, coastlines, very rapid yet very disturbed
The lurking darkness and light betray
Piece, peace, live and leave
Move to the hive.”
Artists apply different creative designs to bring out the real concept behind their works. An image in poetry refers to a word picture of any physical sensation including touch, smell, visual, taste, and auditory. Images become appealing when graphics and actual language applies as opposed to vague descriptions. Imagery applies figurative language to represent one concept using another story (“Aspects Of Poetry”). Moreover, poetic imagery adds dash and tenderness in poems. Poets link familiar images to unknown things to evoke meaning. Figurative language expands the sensory perception beyond the actual sense. It also adds pleasure and creativity throughout the imagination. Imagery also adds vigor and participation by engaging various sensations.
The Shakespeare’s sonnets comprise numerous collections or William Shakespeare’s arts. Mostly his pieces delve into the subject of love, beauty, mortality, and span of time. Interestingly the different sonnet sections are appropriate for either gender in the teenage years. The dominant theme expressed in the sonnets is obsessional love in platonic of physical nature (Burrow, 98). The poems efficiently communicate ambiguous relationships between the persona and the target. The author efficiently applies figurative language to describe the subject in the art with the physical world.
Elsewhere, the sonnets appear in different structural forms. Majority of the sonnets comprise three quatrains made up of four-line stanzas. The final couplet has an iambic pentameter which runs extensively in Shakespeare’s major arts. The sonnets also contain a consistent sounding evident in the regular rhyme scheme. The noticeable trend across the sonnets is abab cdcd efef gg. The structuring includes the first three quatrains or the last couplet to bring out the mood of the poem. The sonnets clearly illustrate the application of art to express the complex nature of human life touching about love, political events, sexual desires, gender roles, and youth life.
Sharon Olds is one of the renown authors in the contemporary generation. She lets go of her reserved and doctrine way of life having to GROW up in a religious family to adopt a more liberal stance as an atheist. The liberated Olds writes about her background and experience in the family, the abuse, and sex. She acknowledges her development to the inspiration to other great poems but criticizes women poets asserting she would not fall in their steps. Olds in her first collection Satan describes the sexual and bodily candour prominent in her works (“Sharon Olds: My Husband Left Me After 32 Years — But I Refuse To Be”). She divides her article into four sections; Daughter, Woman, Mother, and Journeys to define the life of a woman. In her later works “Poem of the Dead” and “Poem of the Living” to describe the injustices against the human.
Natasha Trethewey just like Sharon grows up in a dysfunctional family institution. She experiences the divorce of her parents which inspires most of her works. In her first creation Domestic Work, Trethewey highlights the living and working conditions of black people living in the south (“Natasha Trethewey”). Drawing from her mixed-race background, she focuses on exploring the prevailing situation in the south. In her second book Bellocq’s Ophelia, Natasha uses a fictional prostitute to examine the lives of women in the society. Like Sharon’s position against violence against women in prisons, Natasha explores the conditions for mixed race and the experience of women in the deep south.
Finally, Tyehimba Jess brings his contribution and inspiration through poetry highlighting the history of America. Tyehimba acts as a guide through the period of black artistry (Abdurraqib). In his creation Olio, he explains the progressive movement of the living history of African Americans during and after the civil war and World War I. Jess reflects on an account he can identify with like Natasha and Olds to describe progress towards personal and community liberation.
Works Cited
Abdurraqib, Hanif. “Olio By Tyehimba Jess”. The Rumpus.Net, 2018, http://therumpus.net/2016/04/olio-by-tyehimba-jess/. Accessed 12 May 2018.
“Aspects Of Poetry”. Mcgoodwin.Net, 2018, https://www.mcgoodwin.net/pages/aspectsofpoetry.html. Accessed 12 May 2018.
Burrow, Colin, William Shakespeare: Complete Sonnets and Poems, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 98.
“Ekphrasis”. Poetry Foundation, 2018, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ekphrasis. Accessed 12 May 2018.
“Natasha Trethewey”. Poetry Foundation, 2018, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/natasha-trethewey. Accessed 12 May 2018
“Reflection Of The Big Dipper, 1947 By Jackson Pollock”. Https://Www.Jackson-Pollock.Org, 2018, https://www.jackson-pollock.org/reflection-of-the-big-dipper.jsp. Accessed 12 May 2018.
“Sharon Olds: My Husband Left Me After 32 Years — But I Refuse To Be”. Evening Standard, 2018, https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/sharon-olds-my-husband-left-me-after-32-years-but-i-refuse-to-be-a-victim-8455264.html. Accessed 12 May 2018.