Ekphrasis

Created by Caitlin Cacciatore

This Open Educational Resource (OER) is an exploration of ekphrastic poetry. It is intended for use by instructors of advanced high school-level learners and college students in introductory-level courses. However, it can be adapted to reach outside that range as well.

Please begin with the section on "Defining Ekphrasis." You will find a description of this OER in the text "Ekphrasis: An Exploration of Poetry Inspired by Art." You may then continue to ”Ekphrasis Defined" to thoroughly explore the various definitions of ekphrasis.

From there, you may explore the various examples of ekphrastic poetry before trying your hand at creating your own ekphrastic with a list of 10 questions designed to spark inspiration and creativity.

Please refer to the text "What's Missing?" for a detailed explanation of why certain texts were chosen above others, an analysis of the demographics of the authors presented, and an entreaty for more diverse voices in the literary canon.

Please also refer to the resources at the bottom of the page for a more extensive exploration of each poem, the artwork that inspired it, and biographical information about the author, as well as a small collection of existing OER on this subject.

If you have utilized parts of this resource in your classroom or intend to do so, please fill out this short questionnaire.

Image to the right is a terracotta-neck amphora, attributed to Exekias.

Selected parts of this OER are also archived in a GitHub Repository.

"Ekphrasis: An Exploration of Poetry Inspired by Art" by Caitlin Cacciatore is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.