The Maier Museum of Art
at Randolph College

The Maier Museum of Art Journal of Ekphrastic Poetry

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.

Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College - Online Journal of Ekphrastic PeotryThe 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.

Published Poems 2010 – 2024

2024

Hiroshige, "Yumihari-zuki, n.d., woodcut on rice paper. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College. Autumn Morning
After Hiroshige’s Yumihara-zuki
by Ira Schaeffer
William Bicknell, The Blacksmith, 1920, etching on paper, Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College. Blacksmith
After William Bicknell’s The Blacksmith
by C. Perricone
dismal swamp I’ve Seen Places a Lot More
After Flavius J. Fisher’s Dismal Swamp
by Mary Christine Delea
Mrs. Scott’s House
After Edward Hopper’s Mrs. Scott’s House
by Elissa Greenwald
Fernando Puma, Yellow Sunlight, n.d., oil on canvas. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College. One, Once
After Fernando Puma’s Yellow Sunlight
by Steve Wilson
Eric Sloane, Cloud Mural, n.d., oil on board. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College. The Life of Clouds
After Eric Sloan’s Cloud Mural
by Lynne Knight
Salvador Dalí, Love's Promise, 1976, lithograph on paper. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College. Untitled
After Salvador Dalí’s Love’s Promise
by Lynne Knight
Alison Saar, Backwater Blues (detail), 2014, woodcut on paper; chine collé. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College. Visualization of Blues (a cherita)
After Alison Saar’s Backwater Blues
by Jianqing Zheng

 

2021

Parlous Waters
by R. A. Allen
Seventh Sister
by R. A. Allen
At the café
by Jennifer Hernandez

2020

darkness doesn’t win
by Gwynneth Green
Much Morning
by Rikki Santer
Winslow Homer’s Paris Courtyard
by Joseph Stanton
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.

2019

In My Dreams I Am Whole
by Steve Wilson

The Gift
by Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad

Book Auction by Mabel Dwight

To Understand
by Luigi Coppola
Old Woman by Michael Lenson New Winters
by Luigi Coppola
Untitled (Bar Scene) Mixer 
by Luigi Coppola
Arthur Dove, Cow #1, 1935, tempera on canvas. Purchase made possible by the Fine Arts Fund, 1957. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, founded as Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. The Eyes of Cows
by Luigi Coppola
Animals
by Luigi Coppola
Scaradh
by Tyler Thier

2018

Vipassana
by Steve Wilson
Murray, Elizabeth, Heart with Bricks After the Demise of the Swine’s Sister
by Mary Ellen Talley

2017

On the Brink
by Dianne Borsenik
3 AM Meditation
by Steve Wilson
Lake Scene With Figures
by Lee Evans

2016

The Beauty of the Village
by Steve Wilson
Of April
by Steve Wilson

2015

Prudence Pauses
by Warren Meredith Harris
Dying Words
by Kevin C Chadwick
Breaking Up of the Duncan
by Kevin C Chadwick
Pinion
by Kevin C Chadwick

2014

A Poem for Irving Amen’s ‘Girl with Flowers’
by Terry Bodine
Considering Rest
by Terry Bodine
Suspension
by Andrew L. Smiley

2013

The vibrancy of red
by Lisa Alexander Baron
How To Forget The Horizon At Sea Is Even There
by Jessica M. Brophy
Haunted House
by featured poet Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda
The Deserted Beach
by Guy Terrell
Cape Cod
by Kristine Ong Muslim
Mary Scott Swann, 1816
by Joan Mazza
One of Twenty-Eight Views of the Moon
by Vivian Teter
Yoshitoshi  |  Yoshiiku  |  Mishima Asagiri  |  Kunisada  |  Soshu Tonegawa
by Chris Doss
Missing My Mother
by LuAnn Keener-Mikenas

2011

NIGHTJAR
by dl mattila
third grade, 1957
by Sara Taylor ’12

2010

Landscape with Girl and Flowers
by featured poet Keith Ratzlaff
Woodcock
by Marnie Crowell ’60
Wren
by Marnie Crowell ’60
Cow #1
by Karl Speer ’12