Ekphrasis

Although ekphrasis’ definition continues to be debated today most people refuse to disregard its use. Throughout history, it has been known that ekphrasis plays a central roll in both visual and verbal expression. As I read the different definitions that exist for ekphrasis I began to feel as though it was a concept that felt very familiar to me. It might not be as literature oriented but I find that most people will use language, the verbal form, to express something visual when they are having a conversation and are trying to describe something or someone with preciseness. It is as though the practice of ekphrasis has not faded away but on the contrary has become central in terms of communication. Not only is there something visual that can be appreciated but there is a verbal description of it as well. I think that many of us are able to portray a specific message, emotion, idea, or clear provide a clear description of an object, person, or place through the tool of ekphrasis- we use both visual and verbal forms to communicate. The use of visual and verbal description in order to bring, “the experience of an object to a listener or reader through highly detailed descriptive writing” as Ryan Welsh mentions seems to remain powerful not only in literature but also in performing arts, the media, advertising/marketing etc. and equally in math when it comes to describing geometry as well as the sciences, etc. This form of description brings a sense of feeling or familiarity to people.

As I read the assigned readings I felt as though I was a part of the plot. My mind dove into the story and carried away with the verbal description of the scenery that only became more vivid as the description of what was occurring became more detailed in the writings. In the Iliad by Homer, I found myself living the experience side by side with Hephaestus. As Hephaestus created the “new-forged shield”(458) that he designed for Achilles, son of a mortal, Peleus and an Olympian goddess, Thetis, I began to imagine how powerful and protective the shield would turn out. As Homer described how detailed Hephaestus created each part of Achilles’ shield I could not avoid but to imagine such a beautiful and enormous shield as well as how strong and powerful Achilles was.

From the very beginning Homer captures the reader’s attention as he describes the bronze, silver, and gold that would be use to create the shield for Achilles. As the description of the shield begins ekphrasis is encountered. As Homer states in line 478 “First he made and enormous sturdy shield” and then continues to write in lines 483-485, “There he fashioned earth and heaven and sea, with the tireless sun, a moon at the full, and all those constellations of the sky” the ekphrasis allows for the reader to experience the creation of the shield. With the verbal description of the visual object, the object becomes powerful and tangible to the audience or reader.

Likewise, in “The Shield of Achilles” written by W.H. Auden there are many descriptions given of what Thetis saw as, “she looked over his shoulder”. These descriptions give a glimpse of what the character saw and yet we can imagine it through the detailed description portrayed as it is done when Auden writes, “She looked over his shoulder/For athletes at their games,/Men and women in a dance/Moving their sweet limbs/Quick, quick, to music,/But there on the shining shield/His hands had set no dancing-floor/But a weed-choked field.” These descriptions do not only give us a picture that we will allow us to experience a object or a situation but it also brings out emotion and therefore, it is easier to connect or understand the passage or message that is trying to be delivered.

Also, in both, “Musee des Beaux Arts” by Auden and “Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus” by Williams ekphrasis helps the reader hear and see/imagine what is occurring. With Auden’s poem it is not hard to picture as he writes, “…the dogs go on with their doggy life…” the dogs going about their day and actually actively living their “doggy life”. In both poems together, the reader encounters the ploughman that brings a picture to mind along with, in Auden’s poem, “the splash, the forsaken cry…the sun shone as it had to the white legs disappearing into the green water” and in William’s poem, “sweating in the sun…a splash quite unnoticed this was Icarus drowning” in both, the reader can feel the heat of the sun through the verbal description as well as can hear the “splash” of the water and the “cry” even though it went unnoticed.

In Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, the verbal description of sound and silence creates and emotion to the reader. Keats also writes that sound is sweet but to the sensual ear, the absence of sound can be sweeter as he writes in line 11-12, “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard/ Are sweeter;therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;” he also brings a happy tone to the poem by speaking about happiness, melody, youth and warmness as he describes in lines 23-27, “And, happy melodist, unwearied,/For ever piping songs for ever new;/More happy love! more happy, happy love!/For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d/For ever panting, and for ever young;”. Ekphrasis was vivid throughout the handouts assigned to read. As a reader, I found that after reading about ekphrasis I appreciated what I read even more. I indulged consciously into the reading and enjoyed the details within the reading more as oppose to overlooking key descriptions.