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Quotes:

  • “To make into language the objects, forms, colors and relations of the speechless world is the challenge of the painterly poem. The abstractions of esthetic theory here give way to direct observation and specific transpositions from visual to verbal representation. The world of things and the world of ideas intermingle in this genre, which prompts such questions as: Why did the poet choose to write about this particular painting? In what sense can a poem extend the “meaning” of a painting or deepen our appreciation of it? How has the painter’s style influenced the poet’s sense of verbal composition”(Moramarco 25).
  • That final line is chilling because it applies to all of us who view the painting as well as to the mourning parents. The Effie of the painting, immortalized in art, has a kind of permanence that our fragile and transient lives can never have. Like the figures on Keats’s Grecian urn, she remains fixed and enduring through the assertion of the artistic imagination, conveying “unheard melodies” to us”(Moramarco 33).

Comment: 

When Moramarco discusses this idea of poetry and painting, I found this idea of transpositions and mixing of these two artistic forms of the written word and painting interesting as it connects to our thoughts on what we are allowed to do with other people’s work. Moramarco raises these questions about why a poet might feel compelled to select one painting over another and how can the poem extend the meaning or alter our interpretation of it. This to me feels very similar to our discussions in class of the idea of Harris’ project – how can we take something that we are drawn to whether it be our own work or not and find a way to do something meaningful with it that doesn’t replace the original work but makes way for our voice. Then jumping ahead in Moramarco’s piece, he analyzes the poem by Adrienne Rich titled “Mourning Picture” in conjunction with the painting “Mourning Picture” by Edwin Romanzo Elme and makes the very case that Rich’s poignant last line speaks to us as a viewer of the painting in a way that addresses both the subjects within the painting and reaches through time to ourselves. The extension that the poem brings also makes a choice to give a voice – agency– to the young girl, Effie, within the painting that provides an entirely different feeling when viewing the painting that we might not have had before. 

Question: 

Does this example of extending a work through the addition of a poem inspired by the painting “Mourning Picture” feel different to us than the Goya and Shonibare? Is there something to be said about why our discussions tend to lean toward imitation, copying, etc.  when the two artists are working within the same medium versus this transition Moramarco states between visual and verbal representations? Does one feel less original than the other?