Poetry and the Visual Arts

Poets and Readers of poets often talk about the music and the sound of poetry, linking the art of poetry to music, dance, and aural beauty. We rarely talk about poetry as part of the visual arts. If we talk about poetry’s visual connections, we mostly talk about ekphrastic poetry which uses a work of art as its subject matter. But think of all the poets who were also visual artists: e.e.cummings, William Blake, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, and more. There are enough poet-artists that one has to suspect a connection between the two arts. Poetry can also be linked to the visual arts by genres like “Concrete” Poetry and “Art Words.” But it also works hand-in-hand with various Artistic movements such as the “Contructuralists” or the “Dadaists.” In this workshop, we explore the connection between poetry and the visual arts by looking at some of the work of poet-artists, but also by trying out our own interactions between poetry and the visual arts.