The creation of original poetry and prose in response to works of visual art, known as Ekphrastic writing, is a writing exercise originating in ancient Greece. Schoolboys were assigned composition exercises in which they were challenged to describe painting and architecture in vivid detail. Familiar examples are poems such as John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1819) or W. H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” (1938). Ekphrastic writing has enjoyed a revival among contemporary authors in recent decades.
The Maier Museum of Art’s first Ekphrastic poetry publication came in 2005 with Image/Word: A Book of Poems. This compilation of verse was written by community members of all ages in response to artworks in the collection. In 2009, Image/Word was followed by Water Lines, a book of original poems inspired by the 2008 exhibition Water Marks: Selections from the Permanent Collection. Water Lines includes poems from area elementary, middle, and high school students; Randolph College students; and adult writers active in Central Virginia.
In 2010, poet Keith Ratzlaff taught a class on Ekphrastic poetry as guest instructor for Randolph College’s Visiting Writers Program. At that point, the Maier established an Ekphrastic poetry webpage, now the Maier Museum of Art Journal of Ekphrastic Poetry.
While we are no longer accepting submissions, we hope readers will enjoy the poems inspired by artwork in our collection which have been published over the years.
2024 |
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Autumn Morning After Hiroshige’s Yumihara-zuki by Ira Schaeffer |
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Blacksmith After William Bicknell’s The Blacksmith by C. Perricone |
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I’ve Seen Places a Lot More After Flavius J. Fisher’s Dismal Swamp by Mary Christine Delea |
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Mrs. Scott’s House After Edward Hopper’s Mrs. Scott’s House by Elissa Greenwald |
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One, Once After Fernando Puma’s Yellow Sunlight by Steve Wilson |
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The Life of Clouds After Eric Sloan’s Cloud Mural by Lynne Knight |
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Untitled After Salvador Dalí’s Love’s Promise by Lynne Knight |
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Visualization of Blues (a cherita) After Alison Saar’s Backwater Blues by Jianqing Zheng |
2021 |
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Parlous Waters by R. A. Allen |
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Seventh Sister by R. A. Allen |
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At the café by Jennifer Hernandez |
darkness doesn’t win by Gwynneth Green |
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Much Morning by Rikki Santer |
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Winslow Homer’s Paris Courtyard by Joseph Stanton |
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John Frederick Kensett’s On the Connecticut Shore by Joseph Stanton |
Lady with a Dog by Akshaya Pawaskar |
Untitled (after Mrs. Scott’s House) by Martin Willitts, Jr. |
In My Dreams I Am Whole by Steve Wilson |
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The Gift by Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad |
To Understand by Luigi Coppola |
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New Winters by Luigi Coppola |
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Mixer by Luigi Coppola |
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The Eyes of Cows by Luigi Coppola |
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Animals by Luigi Coppola |
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Scaradh by Tyler Thier |
Vipassana by Steve Wilson |
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After the Demise of the Swine’s Sister by Mary Ellen Talley |
On the Brink by Dianne Borsenik |
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3 AM Meditation by Steve Wilson |
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Lake Scene With Figures by Lee Evans |
The Beauty of the Village by Steve Wilson |
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Of April by Steve Wilson |
Prudence Pauses by Warren Meredith Harris |
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Dying Words by Kevin C Chadwick |
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Breaking Up of the Duncan by Kevin C Chadwick |
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Pinion by Kevin C Chadwick |
A Poem for Irving Amen’s ‘Girl with Flowers’ by Terry Bodine |
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Considering Rest by Terry Bodine |
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Suspension by Andrew L. Smiley |
The vibrancy of red by Lisa Alexander Baron |
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How To Forget The Horizon At Sea Is Even There by Jessica M. Brophy |
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Haunted House by featured poet Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda |
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The Deserted Beach by Guy Terrell |
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Cape Cod by Kristine Ong Muslim |
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Mary Scott Swann, 1816 by Joan Mazza |
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One of Twenty-Eight Views of the Moon by Vivian Teter |
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Yoshitoshi | Yoshiiku | Mishima Asagiri | Kunisada | Soshu Tonegawa by Chris Doss |
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Missing My Mother by LuAnn Keener-Mikenas |
NIGHTJAR by dl mattila |
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third grade, 1957 by Sara Taylor ’12 |
Landscape with Girl and Flowers by featured poet Keith Ratzlaff |
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Woodcock by Marnie Crowell ’60 |
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Wren by Marnie Crowell ’60 |
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Cow #1 by Karl Speer ’12 |