Art poems describe the process of creating and the inspiration behind artistic works. Some are examples of an ekphrastic, while others explore art ephemerally, considering symbolic meanings, muses, and modes of creating.
Art poems are not confined to the visual arts, like painting and sculpture. They also delve into the qualities and affective nature of writing, music, and dance. A poet might spend an entire poem considering the creation of poetry or the feelings a particular piece of music evokes.
Art as an integral part of one’s everyday experience is a common theme in these poems. Some poets ask readers to consider what life would be like without art, either the ability to create or appreciate it, suggesting a very dreary world without light and passion.
When a poet writes an art poem, they sit down to accomplish something quite difficult–putting the feeling a piece of art evokes into words. Each conveys individual experiences, but many will tap into a nearly universal expression of emotion and connection over time.
‘Archaic Torso of Apollo’ by Rainer Maria Rilke details the remaining beauty and power of a damage sculpture missing its head and legs.
This piece is an ekphrastic poem, meaning that it is a poem inspired by a work of art. Rilke was deeply interested in the relationship between art and life, and he often explored howinate and enrich our experience of world experience
We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,
‘The Victor Dog’ by James Merrill humorously explores the listener’s perspective, imagining them as the attentive dog on the Victor label.
'The Victor Dog' looks at art through a multi-layered perspective. With many allusions to classical music, modern music, and everything in between, this poem plays with the idea of art, perception, understanding, and creation. Merrill puts the listener in the position of the Victor dog, who listens intently without understanding art. However, regardless of whether he understands, art is art.
The ‘Ars Poetica’ is a 476-line didactic epistolary poem by the Roman poet Horace. This humorous, engaging verse teaches the wannabe poet how to write good stories and develop meaningful art.
The 'Ars Poetica' is one of the earliest European poems about the study of aesthetics and art. Throughout the verse, Horace teaches the listener what makes a story good, how to organize a play or poem, and how to appeal to a broad audience, among other things. These tips, compiled in a humorous and trustworthy tone, leave a lasting impact on the listener.
‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ by John Keats is an ekphrastic poem that praises the timeless ideals preserved by art, providing a sublime alternative to life’s fleeting impermanence.
A work of art itself, Keats' poem is a celebration of not just the eponymous Grecian urn, but of all art that has a similar effect on its observer or audience. The speaker provides several reasons for its primacy over life: its portrayal of an ideal world, the timelessness of its subjects/meaning, and a sublime beauty elusive to mortals — only attainable through art.
‘Csontváry’s Flowers’ is a fascinating insight into one extraordinary artist’s view of the work of another.
The poem is primarily concerned with a single painting, describing it in such rich and vivid detail that the reader can almost picture it. The poem also reflects on the nature of art more broadly, notably its immense power to inspire.
The thin ribbon of sky, and thinner still,
blued hints of the easterly Carpathians
then down into the whole arboretum of blue-greens and greens
‘The Poet’ by Hermann Hesse uncovers the bittersweet realities of the poet’s purpose and destiny as a visionary for the world and all those in it.
A central topic of Hesse's poem is the value and power of art to transform our lives for the better. The poet is the lightning rod for that art, gathering up all the sublime and beautiful images of life together to create a vision of the future to aspire to.
Tennyson’s ‘The Lady of Shalott’ narrates the tale of the cursed Lady entrapped in a tower on the island of Shalott, who meets a tragic end.
Art is the poem's central concern, explored through the Lady's weaving. Victorian society, represented by bustling Camelot, imposes constraints and expects artistic confinement from the artist, as seen in the Lady's entrapment in an imaginary world. Art in the Victorian era became depoliticized, with artists seen as detached from everyday life and indulged in sophisticated depoliticized 'art for art's sake.' Despite this, art, like the Lady, breaks free to make its statement, highlighting its enduring power and the artist's capability to balance isolation and engagement with society as the poem ends with Lancelot's voice.
‘Sonnet 107’ by William Shakespeare addresses how the speaker and the Fair Youth are going to be memorialized and outsmart death through the “poor rhyme” of poetry.
Art in this poem is depicted as a powerful and eternal force. The speaker asserts that poetry can transcend death and time, with lines like “I’ll live in this poor rhyme” emphasizing the idea that art immortalizes both the creator and the subject. The poem treats art as more enduring than physical monuments, suggesting that while rulers and tangible achievements may fade, poetry will persist.
‘The Past Values’ provides a critical commentary on society’s dissonance of certain events and urges readers to abhor war’s consequences.
Art is a crucial part of this poem's imagery- both in the scenes that artists create and the physical appearance of canvases, frames, etc. Art is upheld as a method of preserving history and ensuring a legacy. Through the medium of artwork, the past and present can converge, allowing for meaningful connection and understanding across generations. Recurring symbols of paintings and glass exhibits serve as a continuous reminder of art's power.
‘How to Eat a Poem’ by Eve Merriam uses eating fruit as a metaphor for reading poetry to encourage readers to enjoy poetry.
The poem deals with the subject of art and relates poetry to the simple sensual delight of the taste of fruit. It deals with the concept of art as something to be taken and consumed without any intermediary, which is why poetry is so simple and easy to grasp.
Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that
‘Pictor Ignotus’ is a poem about an artist who chooses obscurity over fame, painting religious works in solitude rather than seeking public acclaim.
In the poem, art is central as the painter reflects on his creations and their purity. He values art untouched by commercial pressures, seeing it as a spiritual endeavor. The poem explores his deep connection to art and its meaning beyond fame, showing his belief in art's true essence and significance.
I could have painted pictures like that youth’s
Ye praise so. How my soul springs up! No bar
Stayed me–ah, thought which saddens while it soothes!
‘Sonnet 55’ ‘Not marble nor the gilded monuments’ delves into poetry’s immortality and seeks to immortalize the addressee’s memories.
This poem delves into the much-discussed subject of art's immortality by showing the power of art over mortality and time, represented by poetry and this sonnet itself. It juxtaposes poetry with other impermanent things like monuments and statues that people build for legacy, showing how everything gets ruined with time except poetry, which, though lacks the physicality or grandeur of other things, survives the ravages of time and destructions like war, keeping one's legacy and memory alive till eternity or as the speaker claims till the judgment day while fulfilling the universal human desire of immortalizing one's essence.
‘Songs for the People’ is a poem that espouses a hopeful belief in music’s ability to bring peace both to individuals and the world around them.
One of the ideas that Harper's poem explores is that art is an important source of healing. To hear a beautiful lyric or empathize intimately and viscerally with the hardships of another, in these ways, a song or poem might soothe a person's sorrows. As the speaker puts it, the world is one of clamorous and discordant sounds, and only "music, pure and strong" can hush pandemonium.
‘Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn’ by Turnbull echoes Keats, using a modern urn to explore youth’s timeless joy and rebellion.
The entire poem is based on looking at a piece of art — a decorative urn by Grayson Perry. The speaker reacts to the way everyday life is captured on it, showing how art can freeze a moment in time. The urn turns a scene that might seem wild or even trashy into something worth staring at. It makes us think about how art doesn’t always have to be quiet or traditional to matter.
Hello! What's all this here? A kitschy vase some Shirley Temple manqué has knocked out delineating tales of kids in cars on crap estates, the Burberry clad louts
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