Ekphrastic Poetry

A guide to one of the most important modes of contemporary poetry, offering a history of the form and analysis of diverse examples

Poems about art—ekphrastic poetry—have existed since ancient times, and contemporary Anglophone ekphrastic poetry draws inspiration from an ever-widening range of artworks, from painting and sculpture to film, music, dance, and immersive digital worlds. In this book, Cassandra Atherton and Paul Hetherington trace ekphrastic poetry’s evolution and its emergence as one of the most important modes of contemporary poetry. They offer a new, expanded definition of the form, exploring numerous diverse examples, including including Sonia Sanchez’s jazz-influenced ekphrasis, Natasha Trethewey’s ekphrastic poetry on photographs, and work by Indigenous writers such as Joy Harjo.

Ekphrastic poetry has been rejuvenated in the twenty-first century by, among other things, the availability of a vast array of online images and the emergence of new collaborative opportunities. Atherton and Hetherington argue that contemporary ekphrasis is increasingly invested in subversive entanglements with the artworks it evokes; it has become a significant vehicle for decolonizing the museum and expanding notions of the gaze, offering feminist, intersectional, postcolonial, and revisionist readings. This volume is an essential companion for readers, students, and teachers of ekphrastic poetry.