Instructions for Use - For Instructors

by Caitlin Cacciatore

Introduction

Dear Fellow Educator,

Teaching poetry to high school and college students can be challenging. Teaching ekphrasis presents further obstacles to overcome. In creating this Open Educational Resource (OER) on ekphrastic poetry, I hope to aid you in this noble quest. Whether you decide to reuse a single document for your lesson plan, remix several resources, or revise the entire OER to suit a more expansive, robust unit or semester-length course of ekphrasis, I hope you will find this resource helpful.

Together, let us reenvision what is possible in terms of our pedagogy. You will not find questions on the theme or author’s purpose. When we ask our students about the theme of a work, often one pupil answers and no one - including the student who has just identified a singular major theme - has a chance to think deeply about the other themes, leitmotifs, and meanings of the piece, nor the sociopolitical Zeitgeist of the time during which the work was written, nor its historical context and implications, nor its legacy in the literary canon.

This resource is intended to encourage students to think more deeply than they usually would about a piece of art paired with an ekphrastic poem. It is an invitation to them, a wide-open door towards the realm of poetry, one that has the power to unlock and unleash the creative energies within them. Teaching poetry is so much more than standing in front of a room and asking, “What was the author’s purpose in writing this?” Indeed, teaching poetry is a gift, if done correctly - one which has the power to launch a new generation of readers, writers, and lovers of literature.

You will find, as part of the contents of this Open Educational Resource:

Documents

• “Ekphrasis: An Exploration Of Poetry Inspired By Art” - Contains a brief introduction to ekphrasis and offers a gentle entry into the poetic device.
• “Defining Ekphrasis” - Contains several definitions from various dictionaries.
• “How to Write an Ekphrastic Poem” - Contains instructions for how students can begin their own works of ekphrasis.
• “Understanding Ekphrasis” - Contains questions for students to aid in their understanding and analysis of the ekphrastic work in question.
• “What’s Missing” - Contains relevant information about the limitations of this resource and the lack of diversity in the historical English literary canon.
• “A Brief History of Ekphrasis” - Contains information about the history and evolution of the poetic form.
• "The Parthenon Marbles - A Case Study: A Discussion of Ethical Concerns Surrounding Ekphrasis and Ownership of the Artwork That Inspired It” - Contains information about the provenance of the Parthenon Marbles and Greece’s demands for repatriation.

Poems

• “Ode On A Grecian Urn” by John Keats
• “Two Poems On The Elgin Marbles” by John Keats
• “The Man With The Hoe” by Edwin Markham
• “On The Medusa Of Leonardo Da Vinci In The Florentine Gallery” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• “Elegiac Stanzas Suggested By A Picture Of Peele Castle In A Storm, Painted By Sir George Beaumont” by William Wordsworth
• “Sonnets For Spring By Sandro Botticelli” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
• “The Shield of Achilles,” a passage from Homer’s Iliad, Book XVIII
• “Hiram Powers' Greek Slave” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Resources

• Biographical data on selected artists and poets.
• High-fidelity images of selected artworks, including framed and unframed versions as well as the occasional sketch or study.
• A variety of existing OER PowerPoints, PDFs, documents, podcasts, and videos concerning ekphrasis, are compiled for ease of use.
• Further readings to which to direct students.

Remarks

These resources were carefully curated by Caitlin Cacciatore for use in high school and college classrooms. The importance of teaching interdisciplinary art forms such as ekphrasis cannot be overstated. The consideration of careful selection of an image, objet d’art, or artifact allows students to engage with arts across disciplines and understand the combined power of the written word and visual imagery. As images and text are rarely divorced in real-world contexts, this provides them with vital skills to analyze and think critically about the messages they encounter.

It is also important to teach our students the power of words, images, and other media, both for good and for ill. Our students are the next generation of leaders, scientists, politicians, engineers, innovators, creators, and artists, and are the torchbearers of our cultural legacy. One day, we will watch them pass that baton to their children and their grandchildren. As teachers, we are duty-bound to preserve the culture, history, and art of generations who have come before us.

Teaching ekphrasis, from its origins in Homer’s Iliad, to the present day, equips our students with an array of tools with which to think more deeply about the connections between disciplines - not only those of art and literature but also between seemingly disparate realms such as the humanities and the sciences. Empowering our students to make these cognitive leaps allows them to gain a more holistic view of the world they are inheriting. Metaphorically speaking, ekphrasis is the art of building bridges where once there was division, connecting that which was once separated by a chasm. As we step bravely together into an uncertain future, this is, perhaps, one of the most vital skills we can impart unto those who are growing up in a divided world.  

Please feel free to reuse, remix, and repurpose any part of this OER. If you do, I humbly request that you fill out the following form to the best of your ability, so that I may improve this resource and track the number of students and classrooms I have helped: https://forms.gle/FTdQZdv8iFWL8f9y6

“Instructions for Use - For Instructors” by Caitlin Cacciatore is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.